The scientists combine graphene with nitride nanotubes to make a new hybrid digital switch that can be used as the basic element to control current in electronic products. The future promises to make transistors that are not silicon semiconductor, making computers, mobile phones, medical devices and other electronics work faster and with smaller size. Graphene can be “transformed” into a variety of unique materials. Nitride nanotubes can also be processed into various biological and physical materials, but the two materials do not have a place in the electronics world. The electrons in the graphene conductor are released too fast to control the current. The boron nitride nanotubes are not even electrically conductive insulators when they exist alone.
Physicist network reported, Michigan tech university physicist Ye Yujin, led his team to the chemical structure of these two materials, find its don’t match, finally successfully developed a new hybrid digital switch. They etched out many small pinholes at the monolayer graphene surface, and then to the pinhole in the introduction of boron nitride nanotubes, mixed material looks like a layer of the fused bark with irregular thin hair.
Due to the mismatch of the chemical structure, the joint points of the two materials will not match. The graphene thin layer conducts electricity quickly, while the atomic structure in the nanotube prevents the electron flow, so the mixing material has a gap (barrier). These gaps become the key to regulating and preventing electronic flow. The contact points between the two materials are called “heterogenous knots”, which are digital switches.
The research proves that the new hybrid switch has a higher conversion coefficient, and its switching speed is several orders of magnitude higher than that of existing graphene converters, which will accelerate the development of electronic products and computers.
The new hybrid material also addresses two of the current silicon semiconductors in transistors: they can’t be smaller and have a lot of heat. In addition, the new digital switch can avoid the problem of electron flow dispersion due to the matching of the same atomic arrangement of the graphene and nitride nanotubes. Electrons only flow in the same direction to make a larger current, but often electrons go off in the same direction, greatly reducing the current’s strength and speed. The new hybrid switch can control the direction of the electrons in the high-speed current and get the offset electrons back on track.
