graphene

One innovation was using graphene nanofluid rather than distilled water to transfer the heat.

The study was inspired by earlier work where Alijani's team recorded the first-ever sound of a single bacterium using a graphene drum.

The metal ions interact with the oxygen to form semiconductor metal oxides, while the carbon atoms form graphene sheets.

These ingredients assemble themselves into a well-ordered structure consisting of semiconductor metal oxide molecules wrapped in graphene sheets.

"The graphene sheets can be used to tune the bandgap of the semiconductors, making the semiconductor more or less responsive, depending on the quality of the graphene," says Julia Chang, first author of the paper and a postdoctoral researcher at NC State.