“A lot of discoveries in the laboratory are purely accidental,” said Swastik Kar, an assistant professor of physics in the College of Science.
He and Yung Joon Jung, an associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, have received a three-year, $309,000 National Science Foundation grant to explore a phenomenon they discovered entirely by chance, which could afford a new generation of extremely efficient electronics.
Kar’s expertise is in the physics of graphene, which is a sheet of carbon atoms, one-atom-thick. Because of its structure, graphene is a superior thermal and electric conductor. Jung’s work focuses on the mechanics of carbon nanotubes, or nanometer-sized rolled-up sheets of graphene.
“The two materials are closely related in many ways,” said Kar.
Last year, the Provost’s office awarded Jung and Kar a Tier 1 Interdisciplinary Seed Grant to develop new optoelectronic and solar devices using both graphene and carbon nanotubes.
Full article: http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2012/05/kar-jung/
