Rice University theory suggests ‘sinuous’ grain boundries
add strength, predictable semiconducting properties
Far from being a defect, a winding thread of odd rings at
the border of two sheets of graphene has qualities that may prove valuable to
manufacturers, according to Rice University scientists.
Graphene, the atom-thick form of carbon, rarely appears as a
perfect lattice of chicken wire-like six-atom rings. When grown via chemical
vapor deposition, it usually consists of “domains,” or separately grown sheets
that bloom outward from hot catalysts until they meet up.