The future will have a Carbon TV screen

British researchers have created a tiny liquid crystal display using a transparent material that is more stable than diamond and is only one atom thick.

The liquid crystal display made of graphene could one day be applied to everything from touch screens of mobile phones to televisions.

Dr. Kostya Novoselov, a University of Manchester researcher and co-author of the study published in Nano Letters of the American Chemical Society, said: 'This liquid crystal display may be First practical application of new graphene material that we know of. '

Novoselov separated graphene from graphite in 2004. Since then, research on this graphite's relative material has continued to progress quickly.

Novoselov said 'Most universities today have researchers on graphene materials.'

Graphene material is both durable and transparent like diamond, and most are made of carbon atoms, but its atomic structure makes it unique.

Pure diamond is a 3D crystal made of 6 carbon atoms, almost like a diamond with 8 faces on a crystal.

Graphene is also made up of six carbon atoms, but instead forms a two-dimensional hexagon. Each edge of a hexagonal shape forms one side of smaller hexagonal shapes and so on, until a clear, flat sheet of film adheres to carbon atoms.

The thin mesh graphene looks like a tiny wire when viewed at the atomic level.

Image simulating graphene network.

The carbon tube

Carbon nanotubes are like graphene tubes.

'Everything carbon nanotubes can do, graphene materials can do,' Novoselov said.

Graphene's structure and bonding make it as durable and transparent as diamond but can also generate electricity - something that diamonds cannot do. This material is ideal for electrical equipment.

To create graphene-based liquid crystal displays, the researchers decomposed the pieces of graphite (gut in the pencil) into graphene, and sprayed the resulting suspension onto a glass surface.

When the dissolved surface is dried, the researchers selected small pieces and used them as electrodes for small liquid crystal displays.

Novoselov said 'The method we get graphene is almost completely normal.'

This proof-of-concept liquid crystal display is very small, only a pixel resolution and a size of about 1 micrometer (1 micrometer = 1 millionth of a meter).

However, the researchers said, if the number is upgraded, the resolution will be almost the same as a mobile phone screen.

Barriers ahead

The upgrade of their design is the next step in Novoselov's research. But before the screen of mobile phones and televisions made from graphene material becomes reality, there are still two difficulties to overcome.

The first barrier is the creation of a large amount of high quality graphene materials. The second is to control the surface structure.

Overcoming these two obstacles is becoming increasingly important. Because graphene is electrically conductive, it is ideal for making touch screens, as we have built in many mobile phones.

Currently, most touch screens are based on the ITO (indium tin oxide) thin film. However, indium is a very rare element and some researchers have calculated that the world's indium supply may be exhausted within 10 years.

If scientists don't make an alternative to indium, the touch screen may face an even tougher future.

Pablo Jarillo-Herrero - assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a researcher of graphene materials but did not participate in the study of this material in the UK - said 'So what we are going to find out The application for graphene material is also important. '

'Graphene can be used in computers, electronics, nano devices, and nanosensors,' Jarillo-Herrero said.

"For the application of commercial devices, it is still required to undergo basic research before carrying out graphene function," he said.