New Graphene Manufacturing Method Inspired By Tree Frog Feet

Graphene is the cool kid in the world of materials, it’s incredibly strong and conductive, making it perfect for a wide range of applications, and especially good for electronic chips and solar cells. The only problem we have with Graphene is that it is hard to manufacture. When it was first discovered, the one atom thick layer of carbon was created using tape and pencil lead, now it looks like the humble tree frog’s feet may have inspired a new technique.

By adding the graphene to a silicon wafer the researchers were able to create circuits, among other things. This means they can not only grow, but also attached the graphene to the wafer in a single step, making the whole manufacturing process a lot quicker and easier, which hopefully in turn will also make it cheaper.

By using a copper based catalyst coating that allows the graphene to grow on the silicon disc, the researchers used bubbles to adhere it to the disc. They got the idea from the feet of beetles and tree frogs who use the technique to stick to submerged leaves. It’s a strange place to get their inspiration, but an effective one and the team is already working to extend their technique and see if it has commercial properties.

Thank you Gigaom for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of Gigaom.