乡亲们
在帕蒂离开的时候，让我们去看看罗布吧......
帕蒂开车去机场参加一个为期一周的会议，罗布向她挥手告别。现在她是常春藤大学的教授，而他是研究生，他们很少出远门，他知道他会想念她的。他们的双胞胎儿子在他身边，目送着妈妈远去的背影，眼里噙满了泪水。谢天谢地，帕蒂的妈妈同意在帕蒂离开时和他们住在一起。罗伯想，拥有伟大的父母和岳父母是多么幸福的事情。
罗伯觉得自己是个好父亲、好丈夫，但他很清楚，帕蒂才是这个家的支柱。所以她不在的时候，一切都变得不一样了。想到她，他不由得笑了一下，因为他想起了她有时缺乏自信的样子，在这种情况下，他必须陪在她身边。最近的一次是她在艾毅大学第一次演讲的前一晚。
Rob arrived at his office and worked for a few hours and then, later in the day, he headed to lunch with some of his fellow grad students. Rob was about 10 years older than they were, but, if anything, he looked younger and more fit. This lunch was a bit unusual, as Rob usually ate with Patty and Pete, but Pete was with his new girlfriend, Janis.
他的小伙伴们决定步行离开校园，去盐山酒吧。讨论的焦点主要集中在罗布既是研究生又是家长，而他的妻子还是一位教授。他所有的研究生朋友似乎都很敬畏帕蒂。罗布觉得这很感人，也有点好笑。这更加证实了他是一个幸运的人。
回到办公室后，罗布准备开始撰写论文。他的 iPhone 4S 响了起来，他看到帕蒂发了一条短信，说她已经安全抵达。他看着 iPhone，心想如果苹果公司不生产比 iPhone 6 和 6 plus 更小的手机，可能会错失一个细分市场；不是每个人都想要大手机。他需要尽快换一部新手机，但他一直犹豫不决，因为他想要一部小一点的手机。
Rob checked his email and found a note from a colleague regarding an article about graphene as a potential replacement for indium tin oxide (ITO) in flat panel displays. Since this topic was related to his PhD thesis work, he quickly clicked on the link to the article titled, Graphene: Almost The Ideal Replacement For Indium Tin Oxide (ITO). The article contained all the misconceptions about ITO and the reasons it should be replaced. The first being that indium is expensive and scarce, which it isn’t. It then occurred to him that he knew something almost no one else did, that the processed cost of ITO was only about 10% due to indium metal, the remainder being the processing. Another misconception is that ITO is brittle, when in reality ITO can be wrapped around a penny. The article, though, missed a major point about graphene; graphene is not really all that tranparent.
In discussions Rob had with David Socha, of Indium Corporation, David explained that, while graphene has the best electrical conductivity, each atomic layer absorbs about 2% of incident light. So, one can see through a few layers of graphene, but it attenuates light quite quickly as layers are added. The very fact that graphene is such a good electrical conductor limits its transparency. People tend to think of graphene as transparent, but only when considering one atomic layer as shown in the figure below. But, more than one layer is needed if graphene is to be used in flat panel displays as an ITO replacement. These layers quickly make graphene less transparent than ITO.
图 1.石墨烯是最好的导电体，但每层石墨烯会吸收约 2% 的入射光。要达到 ITO 的导电性，需要多层石墨烯。这些多层石墨烯会衰减过多的光线，使石墨烯在平板显示器领域无法与 ITO 竞争。资料来源
Subsequent calculations have supported David’s point. These calculations have shown that to have the equivalent electrical conductivity of ITO used in flat panel displays, so many layers of graphene would be needed that graphene would be no better than using gold with regard to light transmission. And no one considers gold a candidate to replace ITO, as a matter of fact, most would consider gold opaque.
干杯
罗恩博士
