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posted by cmn32480 on Monday October 26 2015, @09:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the is-there-anything-it-can't-do dept.

In the drive to miniaturize electronics, solenoids have become way too big, say Rice University scientists who discovered the essential component can be scaled down to nano-size with macro-scale performance.

The secret is in a spiral form of atom-thin graphene that, remarkably, can be found in nature, according to Rice theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson and his colleagues.

"Usually, we determine the characteristics for materials we think might be possible to make, but this time we're looking at a configuration that already exists," Yakobson said. "These spirals, or screw dislocations, form naturally in graphite during its growth, even in common coal."

The researchers determined that when a voltage is applied, current will flow around the helical path and produce a magnetic field, as it does in macro inductor-solenoids. The discovery is detailed in a new paper in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.


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  • (Score: 2) by Gravis on Monday October 26 2015, @03:28PM

    by Gravis (4596) on Monday October 26 2015, @03:28PM (#254710)

    However, I'm not quite sure how these atom thin solenoids might be used, and the article does not do much to illuminate that. Anyone have ideas?

    anywhere you want to use them that you couldn't before! seems like a great advance for medical devices.

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