(648a) Graphene-Based Materials

Our top-down approaches [1,2] inspired physicists to study individual layers of graphite obtained by micromechanical exfoliation, but our current approaches include growth on metal substrates and judicious use of isotopic labeling (13C vs 12C) to study the kinetics and mechanisms of deposition of large-area graphene and few layer graphene on metal substrates. This talk will focus on our suggested path for obtaining large area growth of high quality graphene in ways compatible with methods of the semiconductor industry. In addition, I will present highlights of published work on polymer and ceramic matrix composites with graphene as filler, on ultracapacitors based on graphene, on paper-like materials based on graphene, and on the use of 13C-labeled graphite (and 12C-pure graphite and graphene) in a variety of areas. Support and prior support of our work by the state of Texas, The University of Texas, DARPA-iMINT, DARPA-CERA, and previously by the NASA and the NSF, is appreciated.

1. Lu XK, Yu MF, Huang H, and Ruoff RS, Tailoring graphite with the goal of achieving single sheets, Nanotechnology, 10, 269-272 (1999).

2. Lu XK, Huang H, Nemchuk N, and Ruoff RS, Patterning of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite by oxygen plasma etching, Applied Physics Letters, 75, 193-195 (1999).

See also papers on http://bucky-central.me.utexas.edu/publications.htm such as #139,146, 150,155, 160, 164, 166, 168, 169, 174, 179-182, 184-192, etc.

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Prior to joining The University of Texas at Austin as a Cockrell Family Regents Chair in Mechanical Engineering, Rod Ruoff served as Director of the Biologically Inspired Materials Institute at Northwestern University. He has been a ?Visiting Chair Professor' at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from the U. of Texas (Austin) and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois-Urbana. He was a Fulbright Fellow at the Max Planck Institute-Goettingen, Germany. From ?89-'90, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in New York. Prior to joining Northwestern in 2000, he was a Staff Scientist at the Molecular Physics Laboratory of SRI International and Associate Professor of Physics at Washington University. His research activities include global environment and energy; synthesis and physical/chemical properties of nanostructures and composites; nanorobotics, NEMS, and developing new tools for biomedical research. Ruoff has published 192 refereed journal articles in the fields of chemistry, physics, mechanics, & materials science at the time of submission of this abstract.