WDIC: Graphene

“Oh I’ve heard about it in like cool medicine series”

Hey peeps. One of the latest things that have come to my attention is graphene. To describe what exactly graphene is is a difficult task, but I’ll try.

Let’s start with a passage for my friends with Material Science majors: “Graphene is a two-dimensional allotrope of carbon. It is the basic structural element of other allotropes, including graphite, charcoal, carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. It can be considered as an extremely thin sheet of graphite, one atom thick. The defining feature of graphene is its atomic-scale honeycomb lattice in which one carbon atom forms each vertex. Each carbon atom in graphene is bonded to three other carbon atoms via sp2 hybrid orbitals, forming a delocalized π-cloud that extends over the entire sheet. This π-cloud gives rise to graphene’s unique combination of properties. These include excellent electrical and thermal conductivity, high optical transparency and strength many times that of steel.”

Sounds like a lot of fun, doesn’t it? Let’s deconstruct some of the terms and why is it so cool in the end.

Graphene who?

First, what’s an allotrope?

An allotrope is a form of an element that has a different molecular structure from the other forms of that element. Allotropes can be either solid, liquid, or gas at room temperature and pressure, so essentially what you know about basic elements of a periodic table holds true here as well. The different allotropes of an element can have different properties, such as color, density, and hardness. You can see allotropes of elements in daily life. For example, the allotropes of carbon are diamond (a hard, clear mineral) and graphite (a soft, black material used in pencils). Here’ we are talking about graphene — the new and fashionable allotrope of carbon that scientists cape up recently

What’s the story behind it?

In 2004, two scientists at the University of Manchester in the UK, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, were working on a project involving carbon nanotubes. They were using a adhesive tape to try to peel off a single layer of graphite from a block of the material. However, they found that the tape was not strong enough to do this.

As they were trying to figure out a way to make the tape stronger, they noticed that some of the graphite had been transferred onto the adhesive side of the tape. They realized that they had accidentally made a new material — one that was just one atom thick.

They named this new material graphene, after the Greek word for “pencil lead” (graphite is another form of carbon).

Graphene turned out to be an amazing material. It is very strong (it is often called “the strongest material in the world”), yet it is also very light and flexible. It conducts electricity better than any other known material, and it is also nearly transparent.

Since its discovery, graphene has been hailed as a “wonder material” with potential applications in many different fields, from electronics to energy storage. These are some of the qualities that make it unique, and that’s exactly what we’re talking about today.

How do people use it now?

Graphene has unique properties that make it suitable for many applications in cutting-edge technologies. For example, its high electrical conductivity makes it ideal for use in electronic devices such as transistors and solar cells. Its high mechanical strength makes it ideal for use in composite materials and bullet-proof vests. And its unique optical properties make it ideal for use in optoelectronic devices such as light-emitting diodes and lasers. Some of the companies using graphene now include:

1. IBM. They use graphene to create faster, more efficient computer chips. Back in 2014, IBM made the news with their new chips using graphene, allowing for a way faster and better work.
2. Samsung uses graphene in the production of flexible touchscreens for smartphones and other devices. As well, it uses graphene as a new battery material.
3. Dyson uses graphene in the development of stronger, lighter vacuum cleaners and other appliances. Yep, girlies, your vacuum cleaners and hair fans are also using the cutting edge tech by a Russian-British scientist duo.
4. Ford Motor Company is investigating the use of graphene in automobile manufacturing, with the potential to use the material to create lighter and more fuel-efficient vehicles.
5. NASA is researching ways to use graphene in space exploration, including developing space-based solar panels and building materials for future missions to Mars and beyond.

What about the future?

Graphene is an amazing material that has the potential to change the world as we know it. Here are just a few ways that graphene could be used in the future:

1. In medicine, graphene could be used to create new and improved medical devices and treatments. For example, graphene-based sensors could be used to detect cancerous cells early on, before they have a chance to spread. Additionally, graphene-coated implants could be used to repair bones or other tissues.
2. In production, graphene could be used to create strong and lightweight materials for use in everything from aircraft construction to consumer electronics. Graphene-based composites could also be used in 3D printing applications, making it possible to print objects with unprecedented strength and accuracy.
3. In science, graphene could be used to create new and improved batteries with higher energy densities than ever before. Additionally, graphene’s unique properties could be harnessed in order to create better solar cells and other renewable energy technologies.

Home reading

That’s as much as I understood about graphene from my own research. If you feel like reading more and getting yourself neck-deep into the material science and physics aspects of graphene, here are a few papers that describe the material better than I did, albeit in a slightly more complicated language:

1. “Graphene: An Introduction” by A. K. Geim and K. S. Novoselov, Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics, Vol. 4 (2013), pp. 109–122.
2. “The physics of graphene” by A. H. Castro Neto, F. Guinea, N. M. R Peres, K .S . Novoselov and A .K . Geim , Rev . Mod . Phys . 81 , 109 ( 2009 ).
3. “Graphene: a promising material for next-generation electronic devices” by Jannik C Meyer , Antonio Facchetti , and Tobin J Marks , Nature Nanotechnology 3 , 380–391 ( 2008 ).

That’s it. Hope you enjoyed the read and learned something new today. With that, have a good week and see you next Monday where I’ll be trying to figure out some new fun obscure scientific topic that I have no idea about.

Always yours,

Sean.