Biodegradable, flexible silicon transistors

Portable electronics users tend to upgrade their devices frequently as new technologies offering more functionality and more convenience become available. A report published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2012 showed that about 152 million mobile devices are discarded every year, of which only 10 percent is recycled -- a legacy of waste...

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Graphene flexes its electronic muscles

Flexing graphene may be the most basic way to control its electrical properties, according to calculations by theoretical physicists at Rice University and in Russia. The Rice lab of Boris Yakobson in collaboration with researchers in Moscow found the effect is pronounced and predictable in nanocones and should apply equally to other forms of graphene....

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Researchers map 3D distribution of carbon nanotubes in composite materials

Despite their small size and simple structure, carbon nanotubes—essentially sheets of graphene rolled up into straws—have all sorts of potentially useful properties. Still, while their promise looms large, how to fully realize that promise has proven to be something of a mystery. In an effort to strip away some of that mystery, researchers from the...

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