Graphene is already being used to extend battery life and store massive amounts of data, and now it looks like it may also be useful in a new type of heat sink that can drastically reduce the operating temperature of electronic gadgets.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina replaced a standard copper heat sink with a copper-graphene composite that improves on copper's already-impressive conductivity. The combination is 25% more effective at drawing heat away from processors, and it's also cheaper to produce than all-copper heats inks.

Researchers say it only takes a 200 micrometer layer of the composite to achieve that kind of heat reduction, meaning even thin gadgets like smartphones and tablets should be able to use it without a change in form factor.

[geek]

Researchers at Stanford University's SLAC National Accelerator Lab have created a new form of graphene, the world's thinnest and strongest material.

Their new "molecular graphene," detailed in Nature, contains custom electrons with unusual electrical properties, including the ability to move as if they were being manipulated by an incredibly strong electrical or magnetic field when no such field is actually present.

The researchers were also able move carbon monoxide molecules around the surface of the graphene to change the electron density of different parts of the material.

"We're now able to tune the fundamental properties of electrons so they behave in ways rarely seen in ordinary materials," said Stanford's Hari Manoharan, lead author of a paper on the discovery.

The upshot is that molecular graphene could be the first of many designer molecular structures with custom electrical properties that could be used for things like improving battery life and storing huge amounts of data.

[popsci]