A University of California, Riverside engineering professor has emerged from his smoke lab with a the discovery that graphene can be used to keep laptops and other electronic devices cool. We don't mean Apple gear of course, that will never be cool.

Alexander Balandin, a professor of electrical engineering at the UC Riverside Bourns College of Engineering, and researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas at Dallas and Xiamen University in China, have shown that the thermal properties of isotopically engineered graphene are far superior to those of graphene in its natural state.

The research efforts were led by the Professor Rodney S. Ruoff of UT Austin and Balandin, a corresponding author for the paper with the catchy title "Thermal conductivity of isotopically modified graphene."  It was published online Jan. 8 by the journal Nature Materials which we get for the spot the rock competition.

Balandin said that the finding shows that there is the possibility of a strong enhancement of thermal conduction properties of isotopically pure graphene without substantial alteration of electrical, optical and other physical properties.

"Isotopically pure graphene can become an excellent choice for many practical applications provided that the cost of the material is kept under control," he enthused.