They named it the “Friday Night Experiment”. Andre GameHe is a physicist and PhD candidate at the Manchester Center for Mesoscience and Nanotechnology (CMN). Constantine Novosilov, devoted his evening distractions to work outside the usual scientific field instead of going home. “Why don’t we build a graphite transistor?” they wondered.and through chancein a second effort, they obtained the material that would win them the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics six years later. graphene, material of the future.
What is graphene Graphite coating just one atom thick and imperceptible to the human eye. Its properties are record breaking. Strongest, most flexible, lightest and best known heat transfer material ever. A few facts to help you figure it all out: It’s 200 times stronger than steel and 1/5 the weight of aluminum.
Given such an array of properties, it seems logical that the industry is in a feverish race to harness the strengths of graphene and develop all kinds of uses for it. Some of them are described in the following gallery.
Fuentes: El Pais, Elle Economista, To Expert, BBC, Vofiel, computer hoi
Considering that graphene is transparent and one of its most valuable properties is its electrical conductivity, it’s no surprise that there is research on this material. Mainly related to use in photovoltaic panels. In fact, some scientists have proven that this material can convert photons to multiple electrons can carry electricity.
Now, the Chinese research team is taking the development one step further. graphene solar panel You can generate energy from rain. These panels feature a graphene coating that reacts with ions in raindrops to generate electricity. At the moment, the performance of current panels in fine weather has not been improved, so scientists are trying to further enhance their properties, but it is a perfect solution for harnessing solar energy in areas with low sunshine. may become.
In the area of sustainability, graphene has proven to be an important partner and is being explored. Desalination and water treatment This material is very promising.
Under the lens of a microscope, sheets of graphene are hexagonal structures featuring very small holes, but the holes remain large enough to allow the passage of water molecules. This permeability may turn graphene into an ideal filter for trapping contaminants and purifying water.
Some time ago, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology managed to remove salt particles from water with the help of: graphene nanopore Two to three times faster than current technology.In addition, researchers at the University of California found that thin graphene-based membrane Water can be effectively filtered to remove contaminants using less energy than current procedures.
Graphene’s properties have led the textile industry to look to this material for designing new kinds of fabrics. Its durability and lightness may enable the tailoring of bulletproof clothing, which is essential for police officers and the military.
In addition, its conductivity allows groups of developers flexible integration, Transparent graphene electrodes in textile fibers Because it turns clothing into a truly portable or wearable, lightweight, durable and easy-to-carry device.
Every year, electronics manufacturers launch new products with features that were unthinkable less than a decade ago, such as facial recognition, water resistance, and fingerprint sensors. Technology now awaits another revolution: flexible screens. In this scenario, graphene is indeed flexible, transparent, and conductive, making it the perfect combination for the purpose.
Flexible screen development is still in its infancy, but a group of engineers at the University of Exeter in the UK have come up with a compound. It consists of two graphene sheets and a ferric chloride molecular coating. it allows Manufacture of flexible electronic devices, Features higher brightness and lower energy consumption.
Combining all these Smaller development, long lasting batteryThis comes with another important graphene-related advancement in the mobile phone space, and perhaps soon we’ll be able to fold our smartphones and tablets into our wallets.
While most of the innovative industries are now leveraging graphene to exploit some of its benefits, the procedure to obtain this material is still very complicated due to the use of explosive compressed gases. It is expensive.
But Australian government agency scientists say things could change. CSIRO developed a new technology to Producing graphene from soybean oil. The procedure consists of heating oil until it decomposes into the carbon building blocks essential for graphene synthesis, followed by rapid cooling on nickel paper. According to these scientists, this is a much easier and safer method.
