Research in phonon scattering sheds more light on graphene as a replacement for silicon

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New research in phonon scattering sheds more light on graphene as a replacement for silicon Pictured is an illustration of multilayer graphene supported on an amorphous SiO2 substrate. [Image courtesy of Jo Wozniak, Texas Advanced Computing Center] Graphene, a one-atom-thick form of the carbon material graphite, has been hailed as a wonder material — strong, light, nearly transparent, and an excellent conductor of electricity and heat. But a number of practical challenges must be overcome before it can emerge as a replacement for silicon and other materials in microprocessors and next-generation energy devices. One particular challenge concerns the question of how graphene sheets can be used in real devices. “When you fabricate devices using graphene, you have to support the graphene on a substrate and doing so actually suppresses the high thermal conductivity of graphene,” said Li Shi, a professor of mechanical engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, whose work is partially funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Thermal conductivity is critical in electronics, especially as components shrink to the nanoscale. High thermal conductivity is a good thing for electronic devices fabricated from graphene. It means the device can spread the heat it generates to prevent the formation

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