January 18th, 2008

[SNIPS]
Graphene exhibits the highest electronic quality among all known
materials, a profound discovery that occurred less than 4 years ago.
Although theorists have known of graphene for over 60 years, the
community has been delighted to be able to confirm the materials
remarkable electronic properties. New insights continue to be
published on a monthly basis in leading scientific publications such
as Nature and Science. In doing so, advanced research groups both in
academia and industry are making graphene a major part of their
technology portfolio, migrating away from III-V semiconductors,
nanowires and carbon nanotubes. Structurally, graphene is similar to a
carbon nanotube, both made up of a single sheet of carbon atoms.
.......

To summarize, I am bullish on graphene. I foresee the following play:

1. Technology heavy weights such as IBM, HP, GE and DARPA will begin
(some already have) to establish serious efforts in targeting
synthesis of wafer scale graphene and development of high performance
devices (continue up to 2012).

2. Graphene IP applications will exponentially increase, comparable to
CNT numbers. Issued patents based on "graphene"=14 compared to
"CNT"=448 (continue up to 2016).

3. The VC community will take note and begin directing capital to
startups together with an increased SBIR call for graphene based
solutions (beginning between 2009-2011).

4. Large cap companies such as Samsung, Intel and Hitatchi and cash
rich startups will acquire or license enabling IP from academia and
startups that entered in the early stages (beginning between
2012-2015).

5. Highly capitalized development houses and foundries such as
SEMATECH, IMEC and LETI will be the first to integrate graphene on Si
(beginning between 2014-2017).

6. Small- and mid-cap corporations will begin commercialization of low
volume discrete graphene based devices such as sensors and RF
components (beginning 2015).

7. Semiconductor manufacturers will then adopted and transfer the
technology into their products (beginning 2019).

http://www.nanotech-now.com/columns/?article=160

Ref:
The Pavlovsky US patent 6,819,034:
http://tinyurl.com/yhdlhr
[SNIP]
Carbon flake is a carbon material with a graphitic structure. It can
be as thin as one or more layers of sp.sup.2 -bonded carbon atoms
(graphite layers), and can be very long in two other dimensions. The
length of a flake can be on the order of microns, whereas the
thickness is on the order of nanometer or tens of nanometers. Thus,
the aspect ratio for this material is very high. A flake, by its
nature, is a system of ordered or turbostratic graphite layers. Carbon
flakes fall into a class of nanostructured carbon materials. The
flakes can be grown by several methods that fall into the following
categories: 1. DC Glow Discharge. This method involves a direct
current glow discharge between two electrodes in a gas environment.
The plasma between the two electrodes is of the order of 1000.degree.
C. or higher. This method produces carbon flakes along with other
types of carbon materials such as carbon nanotubes. This method is
used for depositing directly onto a substrate. 2. Thermal CVD
(Chemical Vapor Deposition) Method. In this method, a carbon precursor
gas and a substrate are heated to a temperature of 600.degree. C. and
higher while thermal decomposition of the precursor is observed. The
substrate has a catalyst on the working surface, which gives rise to
growing carbon structures like carbon nanotubes and carbon flakes. A
bias voltage can be used to make carbon nanostructures grow straight.
This method is used for depositing directly onto a substrate.
******

IOW - the flakes ARE graphene! The word 'graphene' does not appear,
unfortunately - that article would then have noted '15' patents rather
than '14'! But have no doubts - GRAPHENE it is.

NPI=The Great Graphene Company

Bethany Halford
January 28, 2008
 Volume 86, Number 04    p. 15

TYING TOGETHER materials science and chemistry, scientists have
developed a chemical method for making carbon ribbons less than 10 nm
wide and just one atom thick (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1150878).
The semiconducting properties of these so-called graphene nanoribbons
make them promising materials for electronics applications.

To create the graphene ribbons, Hongjie Dai and colleagues at Stanford
University first chemically exfoliate graphite, loosening individual
layers of graphene by giving the graphite a 60-second bath in 3%
hydrogen in argon gas at 1,000 °C. They then "tear" the graphene into
strips by sonicating the material in solution. Previously, scientists
used lithographic patterning to cut graphene into ribbons. But Dai's
chemical method yields narrower ribbons with far smoother edges.

Rodney S. Ruoff, a nanoengineering professor at the University of
Texas, Austin, says the work is exciting. "It is surprising that such
fine ribbons could result from processing through use of ultrasound,"
he notes, "so there is some underlying mechanics of a fairly selective
propagation of 'cracks' or 'tears'" in the exfoliated graphene.

Dai's effort represents a "significant leap" in graphene research,
according to Andre Geim, a physics professor at England's University
of Manchester. The new work, he says, shows "one needs to make ribbons
only a couple of times narrower than were previously reported to make
a qualitative change in characteristics and reach a good transistor
action required for integrated circuit applications."

To that end, Dai says the slim nanoribbons have useful properties at
room temperature that make them promising electronic components for
field-effect transistors and sensors. Furthermore, all the nanoribbons
that were less than 10 nm wide were semiconducting, unlike their
carbon nanotube cousins, which exist as a mix of semiconducting and
metallic materials.

Dai says that the electronic performance of nanoribbon-based devices
still needs further investigation. In the meantime, he says, the
nanoribbons "will provide an experimental test bed for studies of many
fundamental electrical, spectroscopic, and spin properties predicted
for these materials."

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/86/i04/8604notw7.html