Latest graphene surprise: a better conductor than expected.

Or: “Weird substance gets weirder.” Nature has more on how the latest tests have thrown models of how carbon circuits are supposed to work into disarray:

In graphene, electrons can move faster than in any other material at room temperature. But techniques that cut sheets of graphene into the narrow ribbons needed to form wires of a nano-scale circuit leave ragged edges, which disrupt the electron flow (see ‘Graphene: The quest for supercarbon’).

Now a team led by physicist Walt de Heer at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta has made ribbons that conduct electric charges for more than 10 micrometres without meeting resistance — 1,000 times farther than in typical graphene nanoribbons. The ribbons made by de Heer’s team in fact conduct electrons ten times better than standard theories of electron transport suggest they should, say the authors. This unimpeded motion means that circuits could transmit signals faster and without the overheating issues that hamper typical semiconductor chips.

Nice that the problem here is that it works *too well* for once….