Scientists create graphene hybrid

HOUSTON, March 3 (UPI) -- Scientists in Texas say they've stitched graphene and hexagonal boron nitride into a two-dimensional quilt, opening new paths in materials science.

The researchers at Rice University said their achievement has implications for application of graphene materials in microelectronics that scale well below the limitations of silicon determined by Moore's Law.

Professor Pulickel Ajayan, who led the study, said the discovery demonstrates a way to achieve control in the creation of hybrid, 2-D structures and is thrilling for a materials scientist.

"From a graphene perspective, it now gives us an opportunity to explore band-gap engineering in two-dimensional layered systems," he said. "The whole phase diagram of boron, carbon and nitrogen is fascinating, unexplored and offers a great playground for materials scientists."

Co-authors of the paper included postdoctoral scientists Lijie Ci and Li Song, as well as scientists from the Nanotube Research Center in Tsukuba, Japan; the University of Utah; Texas A&M University; and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Fla.

The research appears in the early online edition of the journal Nature Materials.