Symbiotic sensors

Citation

Loughlin, C. (2011), "Symbiotic sensors", Sensor Review, Vol. 31 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/sr.2011.08731aaa.002

Symbiotic sensors

Article Type: Editorial From: Sensor Review, Volume 31, Issue 1

Nanosensors and nanotechnology have featured regularly in this journal over the years and as an acknowledgement of the accelerating rate of research and new product developments in this area, we have decided to introduce a new section, “Nanosensor update” in each issue. This will be compiled by our Associate Editor, Robert Bogue who also happens to be our Guest Specialist for this issue’s theme “Gas Sensors”. This new section will serve to keep us all up to date with the field of nanosensors in general as well as those specific to each issue’s theme.

The interest and importance of the very small has been illustrated recently by the award of the Nobel Prize for Physics 2010 to Russian-born Professor Andre Geim, and Dr Konstantin Novoselov of the University of Manchester, UK, for their work on the discovery and fabrication of graphene.

Graphene is one-atom-thick sheets of carbon atoms with amazing mechanical and electronic properties, and we have all been using it for years. The “lead” in pencils is primarily graphite which comprises millions of sheets of graphene and carbon nanotubes are “simply” rolled up sheets of graphene.

The main difficulty with graphene is getting it in a useful form. The real breakthroughs have come using vapour deposition and material erosion techniques that are commonly used in semiconductor industries. This is seriously tricky technology, but fortunately we already have enough of the right tools in our toolkit to mean that the prospect of super-fast electronics and flat screen displays that can be rolled away, are imminent.

All life on Earth is carbon based and it is likely that all life everywhere is carbon based. This arises thanks to carbon’s great ability to create a wide variety of inter-molecular and inter-atomic links in a self-replicating manner. It is impressive that the same atom gives us precious diamonds that are very hard and transparent and used in abrasives, graphite that is black and used as a lubricant, and coal that we burn in our power stations.

All these different forms of carbon are only different because they are different at an atomic level. The whole area of nanosensors is also interesting because materials behave differently as they are made smaller. The reduction in size means a lot more than just the reduction in physical dimensions. Forces like gravity that literally hold the world together, become almost insignificant, while forces such as Casimir (see Nanosensor update in this issue) that are irrelevant at millimeter levels become dominant at the nanoscale.

Although the world has now woken up to graphene, with transistors and memory devices already developed, it is very likely that we have only just scratched the mono-atomic surface of the very great potential of graphene. Whereas most current electronic components are silicon based and therefore separate from life forms as we know them, carbon-based components may well be symbiotic with our bodies and perform roles even beyond the realm of science fiction.

Clive Loughlin