GRAPHENE -THE WONDER MATERIAL
Throughout this last century there have been innumerable discoveries that have given humanity a significant advance in the field of science, technology, the aerospace career and innumerable areas that have improved the quality of life of the human race. In the 21st century Nanotechnology, the discovery of water on Mars, the discovery of new planets possibly inhabitable by man, among many others, stand out.
But there is a discovery that stands out and supposes an unprecedented revolution as far as technology is concerned, and this is THE GRAFHENE; Named by many as the "Material of God", and by the way it is composed and what its discovery represents, is not for less.
Many of you have heard of it, and although it was officially discovered in 2004, many are unaware of its characteristics and the benefits they bring from science and technology.
In this article we will talk in detail about how this super material is composed and what possibilities we have with its development and research.
This material is almost unknown as it is not very common, and many researchers have been studying its properties and innovative features. And it was the award-winning scientists Andre Geim and Kostantin Novoselov of the University of Manchester (United Kingdom), who managed to isolate it for the first time in 2004, and later received the prestigious Nobel Award for Physics in 2010 for their advances in this discovery .
Its characteristics have been described by many researchers as amazing, in which it emphasizes its enormous thermal and electrical conductivity, its great resistance and flexibility and it is also one of the lighter materials known until now; But in addition it reacts to certain chemicals that give rise to the development of different compounds of various properties, which makes it a material with immense development potential.
It is the only material known so far that manages to combine all these wonderful features at the same time.
The extraordinary characteristics of this material make it the best choice in what is technology and especially computer science. For example, we have seen the development by the Samsung company of a flexible screen made with this material for their future smartphones. The field of mobile telephony where the use of graphene is the newest and most used.
Before emphasizing in its applications we will talk about how it is composed and its main characteristics that define it as a super material.
Graphene is composed of one or more sheets from graphite and with a thickness of only one atom, arranged in hexagonal and flat form. Each atom is linked to three more atoms and so on forming a large and huge network. Each of these bonds are covalent and form 120 ° to each other of the same atom. Because it has double bonds, the suffix "-eno" is added to the name "graph-". The distance of one atom to another with which it forms a bond is 142 pm (picometers).
Its characteristics and properties are the most revolutionary until now, that will change the technological world and our daily life. We enumerate its main characteristics:
Hardness: The hardness of a material is measured by the amount of energy that can absorb this material before breaking or deforming, in the case of graphene its resistance is 200 times greater than that of steel, being even harder than diamond. As we speak of a material with great resistance and can withstand large weights, it is estimated that to cross a sheet of GRAPHENE with a sharp object needs to exert on it a force of 4 tons.
Lightweight: Graphene is 5 times lighter than aluminum, making it the perfect choice for the automotive area, aerospace development and the manufacture of displays for mobiles and televisions. A sheet of one square meter of graphene weighs only 0.77 milligrams, and is estimated to weigh 200 times less than a steel mine with the same surface.
Elasticity and Flexibility: This material presents a high flexibility and elasticity, it can be expanded ten percent in a reversible way, being able to be applied a lot of surfaces which will also increase its hardness since being moldable is less likely to break.
Good Heat Conductivity: Thermal conductivity is a physical property that measures the ability of a body to conduct heat, ie to allow the passage of heat efficiently through it, this property is superior in metals but usually very Inferior in the other materials, and Graphene is the exception of this rule.
The Best Conductor of Electricity: It is a material that conducts much better electricity than copper, needs less electricity than Silicon to transport energy, which makes it an exceptional candidate when it comes to making solar panels, batteries Computer and mobile computer components; All this would benefit significantly by increasing its energy efficiency as it would produce less heat in exchange for higher performance. Although it is possible to emphasize that in this sense the Graphene does not possess Resistivity (electrical resistance) what if it owns the Silicon, reason why some experts say that the Graphene like a new material that can do things that the silicon can not, but in no Case could replace it.
Transparency: It is a material almost totally transparent and joining it to its other characteristics like flexibility, would be the basis of the already seen technology that makes possible the flexible and transparent screens, as the screens of the Samsung brand.
High Density: It is a material that has nanometric pores that do not allow any known substance to pass with the smaller atoms, such as Helium, except water, which if it passes through it but evaporates as if it were in an open vessel. Which makes it ideal for water filtration in different industries.
Reacts Chemically with Other Substances: This opens up a virtually unlimited range as it forms the basis for the creation of new materials with different properties and properties. Obtaining new super materials and research fields.
Resistance to Ionizing Radiation: At present the devices that emit ionizing radiations diminish their useful life quickly, which generates a cost raising with its use. With the use of graphene in its construction would solve this problem since it presents a great resistance to be modified in its structure by these emissions. One of the most important applications would be in the field of medicine, as is the case with radiotherapy systems.
An Ecological Material: When coming from a natural substance such as graphite that is merely organic to be made of carbon, it does not pollute the environment at all, so the manufacture of batteries and batteries today that are highly polluting would be in the past Quickly with the use of this new super material.
It is Antibacterial: It was proved that bacteria cannot grow in it, which makes it ideal for use in the food industry as in biomedicine.
Self-Healing:In case this material is capable of self repair, the researchers fired a ray of electrons on a sheet of graphene, causing a hole in it, subsequently applied carbon to the hole which caused the material to repair itself alone.
As we can appreciate the wonderful features of this new material opens an endless number of possibilities in a large number of fields ranging from the usual technology, through medicine, the health industry, entertainment, communications, etc. For all this, it is not strange to say that its utility is practically unlimited and that the barriers to its application are only in the human mind.
Technology: In the technological field the possibilities offered by the graphene are almost unlimited, its properties in the field of electronics, which is so to say, the basis of all technology, has high performance in the manufacture of integrated circuits by owning low Noise level and high carrier mobility to be used as a channel in field effect transistors (FET).
Processors today often lose efficiency or energy in the form of heat, with the use of graphene could exponentially exceed the efficiency of processors reaching very high speeds compared to those made in silicon. IBM announced in 2010 the manufacture of new transistors with this technology that operated at 300 GHz.
High Speed Wires: This material could revolutionize the world of telecommunications, highlighting one of its characteristics as the capture of a lot of light, which can be used in the creation of very fast fiber optic wires which could transfer Information hundreds of times faster than a current one.
Super Batteries: Today one of the weaknesses of Smartphones and tablets is the duration of the batteries, degrading the users experience by not obtaining the most suitable power with the traditional lithium batteries. But with the implementation of this material in the manufacture of new batteries based on Graphene this problem will be exceeded widely by three times the duration and efficiency compared to traditional ones.
Similarly in the area of electric cars would see a significant evolution increasing the autonomy of these vehicles in a great way, for example in a Tesla Model S which is a super sports electric would go from 350 km to 1000 km autonomy with The use of graphene batteries.
The charging times of these batteries are estimated to be reduced by 70%, being able to charge your phone in just 5 minutes or less.
Transparent and Flexible Touch Screens: As we said before this technology and we have seen it first hand by the people of Samsung who have already shown us their phones with flexible touch screens. Like many more gadget that implements this modern trend like the bracelets and "Wearable" that already are among us, bringing a better quality to the devices that we use daily.
Much more Sensitive Cameras: Currently the conventional cameras capture the image by means of a sensor that is in charge of converting the light that arrives in quality images of digital form, with the sensitivity of Graphene will allow us to manufacture sensors capable of capturing the images with much more Quality in low-light condoms than traditional ones, increasing up to a thousand times the image quality, we are talking about a brutal improvement in this field of photography. In addition, these new graphene sensors consume 10 times less energy and their cost of production is 5 times smaller than traditional optical sensors.
Sport: One of the few sports where the implementation of graphene has been seen is in tennis, specifically in rackets, where graphene brings manageability, durability, balance accompanied by a reduced weight.
In 2013 the Head company presented to the public the renovation of its line of racquets Speed, Instinct, Radical, Extreme and Prestige made entirely with Graphene. Currently the company owns the patent of manufacture of rackets with this material.
Medicine: At present the treatment to attack the cancer cells consists in eliminating the affected cells as well as the healthy ones, but by the application of Graphene Oxide that acts like anticancer agent and that only acts on the malignant cells of the affected zone, Significantly reduces the side effects of current procedures, reducing the spread of cancer. These methods require much more research, but the first steps are already under way.
These examples represent only a small part of the scope of the implementation of graphene in our daily life and the impact that will revolutionize life as we know it.
At this point, we wonder why this material is not massively produced for its use? Well, one of the problems to be overcome in future research that is being carried out is its manufacture or extraction. At present, in order to preserve all its properties, the highest quality material must be obtained. With current methods high quality graphene is generated but in minimal quantities, which is not enough for industrial use. And the techniques for obtaining this material are not precisely simple, so it requires a complicated industrial and technological process that allows mass production.
Most Used Methods
Graphite Exfoliation: This method consists of mechanically separating with some adherent material, such as an adhesive tape, graphite sheets. This procedure is the most inexpensive and simple, obtaining graphene of high quality but in really small amounts.
Deposition of Carbon Atoms: This method seeks to heat the carbon until particles are suspended in the air, then deposited in a substrate by cooling said suspended particles. By means of this method high quality graphene sheets can be obtained and in greater quantities, but the cost of production is relatively high.
Oxidation-Reduction of Graphene Oxide: By using Redox reactions, graphene oxide can be obtained (which can be obtained in large quantities) and when it is purified, it is converted into graphene. For this, chemical substances are used that oxidize the graphene, for example, that contain Hydrogen that in combination with the oxygen, will form water and later it is reduced with elements carbon composed to "fill the holes" produced in the previous process.
Artificially: By manipulating graphene oxide molecules to achieve the desired mechanical and electrical characteristics, high quality graphene can be produced and in relatively high amounts, and it is definitely the most expensive procedure, but certainly one of The methods that are most affecting the manufacture of graphene.
Definitely speaking about GRAPHENE is talking about one of the most revolutionary materials to date and that can mark the future of humanity and life as we know it, there are still many things to discover and investigate, but I am sure that we will hear much more about This impressive material.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene
- https://www.graphenea.com/pages/graphene-uses-applications
- https://www.graphene-info.com/graphene-applications
Great post! I have been following graphene development for a while. It is an amazing material.
Have a great week!
Steem on,
Mike
Thanks a lot my friend!
Amazing material. I am watching a company here in Australia using nano dots using the same material. Will be a game changer in alternative energy and visual technologies in the next 2 or so years.
Thank you, happy that you enjoyed the post! :)
Great article.
Thanks a Lot!
Nice information and article my friend ! :)
Thank you, happy that you enjoyed the post! :) @happyphoenix
Amazing material. It all I ever wanted to know about graphene. Good job
I don´t like they call it "Material of God", even that is not a natural material, it a is material made by the man.
There is a part of the article that say:
This double bond equivalent change of position with all the net and it is that generate all the awesome propierties of the graphene.
Nice post!