
One-molecule-thick material has big advantages - maxko87
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/graphene-molybdenum-disulfide-flat-materials-0823.html
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Eduardo3rd
I'm starting to grow a little bit numb toward all the revolutionary materials
science papers that I've seen since starting grad school. I don't mean to
malign the work done here, but if I had a dollar for every paper I've read
that claimed to be the foundation for a new class of devices I'd be rich
enough to start my own seed fund.

When will we see some actual commercialization of this nano tech? The nano
future has been five years away for the last 20 years. Let's make some devices
already.

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pilgrim689
"Let's make some devices already."

That's genius. We need to relay this idea to the science people. Is there a
mailing list?

Oh!
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nanotechnology_applicat...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nanotechnology_applications)
, Nevermind! :P

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randallsquared
Chips with small feature sizes and paints with nanoparticles in them are not
really what was originally meant by "nanotechnology". We _still_ do not have
the capability to design and build arbitrary machinery using individual
molecules as building materials. In the meantime, the word "nanotechnology"
got appropriated to refer to anything that involved small feature sizes and
needed funding grants, so Drexler started calling it "molecular
manufacturing"...

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chime
This may be a stupid question but can you even see something that is just one
molecule thick? Is it mostly transparent?

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othello
Indeed, from the fourth to last paragraph: "The material is so thin that it’s
completely transparent"

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gliese1337
So, it's widely produced as a lubricant already, but how would supply hold up
if the market for the material hugely expands? One of the really nice things
about the potential for graphene electronics is that you can be darn sure
we'll never run out of carbon. Molybdenum, on the other hand, isn't exactly
the most common metal in the world. Our electronics already depend on traces
rare elements, but not as primary structural components.

So, even if we can make chips out of this stuff, will they actually be
economically viable, and for how long?

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Spytap
I wonder what the likelihood is of this being a solution for Augmented Reality
contact lenses. The article mentions the possibility of it being used to build
displays for eyeglasses, but that depends on a number of factors like pixel
density that I can never tell whether reporters take into account.

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Ralith
That it might be useful for displays at _all_ is mere speculation at this
point. Meaningful conjecture on the characteristics of those displays is
beyond the scientists doing the research themselves; don't get your hopes up
for the reporters doing any better.

