A new step forward that might make graphene mainstream.
Novel graphite filter removes 99% of organic waste in water
Bottoms up!
‘Magic angle’ allows stacked graphene sheets to work as both insulator and superconductor
It means that we could one day build amazing electronics with graphene.
Graphene trainers are strong, stretchy, and have an excellent grip
The future of shoes might be graphene.
Scientists combine spider silk with graphene, create incredibly powerful web
The best part? The spiders themselves produce it.
Graphene-based sieve makes drinking water out of seawater
Desalination might one day be as easy as passing water through a sieve.
Nanoribbons pave the way for switching graphene ‘on-off’
A novel and better way to make graphene into a semiconductor.
Czech researchers turn graphene sheets into the first stable non-metallic magnets
Is there anything graphene can’t do?
How to cook graphene using only soybean oil. Seriously, these scientists did it
The process takes 30 minutes and is 10 times faster than previous methods.
Mixing Silly Putty with graphene creates incredibly sensitive pressure sensors, scientists find
Nothing silly about these findings. Except the putty.
Graphene elastomer is more sensitive than human skin
Researchers have developed a new graphene-based elastomer that can revolutionize prosthetic skin.
Growing graphene nanoribbons jut got a lot easier, spelling great news for electronics
University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers devised a new method that grows graphene nanoribbons directly on a germanium wafer. The ribbons are of excellent quality and the technique is compatible with current manufacturing methods. These sort of ribbons have been heralded by industry experts as the component of the future which will make electronics faster and more efficient. The only thing that’s been missing until now was a sound way to make them.
Introducing stanene: just like graphene, except it’s a 2D tin honeycomb
After graphene proved to be one of the greatest discovery of the century, material scientists became inspired to see if other 2D meshes (just one atom thick layer of material) could be made from other elements. In time, we’ve heared about silicene, phosphorene or germanene. Now, a group from China reports for the first time stanene: a honeycomb 2D arrangement of tin (Sn) atoms, with a a bismuth telluride support that buckles the whole structure. Stanene is extremely exciting because it’s been previously theorized that it could transfer electricity without heat loss, implying huge energy savings and increased performance for semiconductor applications.
Scientists predict the existence of a liquid analogue of graphene
By now, we’ve all hopefully at least heard of graphene, the new wonder material that promises to revolutionize a swarm of applications. But now, a team of researchers from Finland have predicted the existence of atomically thin, free-standing 2D liquid phase – a liquid analogue of graphene.
World’s thinnest light bulb built using a graphene filament
A group of international researchers unveiled the world’s thinnest light bulb. Remarkably it uses a carbon-based filament, just like Thomas Edison used in 1879 for the first truly commercially-viable incandescent bulb. Unlike Edison, however, the group used carbon in its pure form and ultimate size limit – one atom-thick graphene sheets. Remarkably, the tiny bulb emits light visible to the naked eye. Of course, these sort of designs aren’t about setting milestones, though it’s always interesting to see how low or high down the scale you can go with engineering. Mostly, graphene-based light sources might prove useful for optical communications where bits are transmitted via packets of photons, instead of electrons.
Spiders weave graphene-infused silk: the strongest of both worlds
Graphene – the one atom thick sheet of carbon arranged in a hexagon lattice – is the strongest material known to man, and spider silk is one of the strongest found in nature, second only to limpet teeth. Heck, why not combine the two? Sounds silly, but it surprisingly worked when Nicola Pugno of the University of Trento, Italy sprayed spiders with both graphene particles and carbon nanotubes. The spiders weaved silk infused with the materials, and in some cases the silk was 3.5 times stronger than its natural counterpart. The resulting fiber is tougher than “synthetic polymeric high performance fibers (e.g. Kevlar49) and even the current toughest knotted fibers,” according to the paper published in Materials Science, which obviously entails a lot of real-life applications, industrial or otherwise.
Perfection is overrated: Flawed graphene sheets may lead to better fuel cells
A rather surprising study found that graphene’s imperfections can actually be used to improve fuel cell efficiency. Researchers from Northwestern University worked together with scientists of five other institutes to show that defective graphene actually works as the world’s thinnest proton channel—only one atom thick.
Graphene shows potential as anti-cancer agent
A while ago I wrote that the applications for graphene are endless, and it seems like scientists just want to make prove me right – University of Manchester scientists have used graphene to target and neutralise cancer stem cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed.
Penta-graphene is stronger and better than graphene – we only need to make it, now
Chinese researchers ran simulations and found that a pentagon-containing version of graphene is theoretically stable. The 2D allotrope of carbon is made up of atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a repeating pentagon pattern, while graphene is made up of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagon pattern, like a chicken wire. Graphene is the strongest material in the world and fantastic electrical conductor,
Novel Production Technique Could Make Graphene 1000 times cheaper
A PhD student from Netherlands has demonstrated a technique which could massively cut down the production costs of graphene. With this technique, producing the “wonder material” could be 1,000 times cheaper. For his thesis, Shou-En Zhu from the Delft University of Technology described a way to create an “endless sheet” of graphene. The way he does it is through chemical vapor deposition on