Carbon is a wondrous thing, especially in the form of graphene
The NY Times has an article today describing recent developments in graphene, which is a carbon based material with amazing properties. Carbon is of course the basis for life on earth and when emitted into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide it warms the earth (as do other greenhouse gases like nitrous oxide and methane). Graphene is strong, conductive, flexible, and transparent, which gives it many advantages over conventional materials.
Here are a few key paragraphs from the NY Times article:
While the material was discovered a decade ago, it started to gain attention in 2010 when two physicists at the University of Manchester were awarded the Nobel Prize for their experiments with it. More recently, researchers have zeroed in on how to commercially produce graphene.
The American Chemical Society said in 2012 that graphene was discovered to be 200 times stronger than steel and so thin that a single ounce of it could cover 28 football fields. Chinese scientists have created a graphene aerogel, an ultralight material derived from a gel, that is one-seventh the weight of air. A cubic inch of the material could balance on one blade of grass.
“Graphene is one of the few materials in the world that is transparent, conductive and flexible — all at the same time,” saidDr. Aravind Vijayaraghavan, a lecturer at the University of Manchester. “All of these properties together are extremely rare to find in one material.”
We’re still far from widespread commercial appellation of graphene, but I wanted to point readers to the three best scientific articles of which I’m aware that demonstrate the use of graphene for sensors and super capacitors (energy storage).
Bogue, Robert. 2012. “Environmental sensing and recent developments in graphene." Sensor Review. vol. 32, no. 1.
Liu, Chenguang, Zhenning Yu, David Neff, Aruna Zhamu, and Bor Z. Jang. 2010. "Graphene-Based Supercapacitor with an Ultrahigh Energy Density." Nano Letters. vol. 10, no. 12. 2010/12/08. pp. 4863-4868. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nl102661q]
Liu, Chang-Hua, You-Chia Chang, Theodore B. Norris, and Zhaohui Zhong. 2014. "Graphene photodetectors with ultra-broadband and high responsivity at room temperature." Nat Nano. vol. advance online publication, 03/16/online. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2014.31]
One of my colleagues at Stanford was skeptical of using graphene and carbon nanotubes in microprocessors, but he thought the other applications were quite exciting. This material, when combined with recent developments in energy harvesting, will likely accelerate the advent of "Smart Everything”, as we discussed in our recent article in the Annual Review of Environment and Resources.
