Student-Faculty Collaborative Research Grant Report

Graphene, an allotrope of carbon in which the carbon atoms are aligned as a two-dimensional sheet, has the potential to be an incredibly sensitive detector for biological cell activity. The thinness of graphene, its low resistance, and high mobility of its charge carriers suggests that graphene may provide the greatest sensitivity of any material to date. Unfortunately, some of these properties, especially the mobility, are not as impressive when measured in a liquid environment. I propose to study the mechanisms that cause such differences in mobility by comparing measurements in both liquid and vacuum