Graphene - Incredible Material

carlos-cabeza (68)in #blog • 6 years ago (edited)

Throughout this last century there have been countless discoveries that have given humanity a significant advance in the area of science, technology, aerospace career and countless fields 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 habitable by man, and 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 GRAPHEN; called by many the "Material of God", and by the way in which it is composed and what its discovery represents, is not for less.

Many of us have known about it, and although it was officially discovered in 2004, many are unaware of its characteristics and the benefits that science and technology bring.

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.

THE GRAPHENE: It is a substance formed by pure carbon, with a hexagonal structure of carbon atoms, one of the most important and abundant elements in nature, this material is formed naturally when tiny particles of carbon are grouped in very dense sheets and two-dimensional shape. Its thickness is one atom and is obtained from a substance that is very abundant in nature, the "Graphite".

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 Andre Geim and Kostantin Novoselov from the University of Manchester (UK) who first isolated it in 2004, and then received the prestigious Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010 for their breakthroughs in this discovery.

Its characteristics have been described by many researchers as amazing, which highlights its high thermal and electrical conductivity, its great strength and flexibility and is also one of the lightest materials known so far, but in addition to that reacts to certain chemicals that give rise to the development of different compounds of various properties, making it a material with immense potential for development.

It is the only material known so far that manages to combine all these wonderful characteristics at the same time.

The extraordinary features of this material make it the best choice in terms of technology and especially information technology. For example, we have seen Samsung develop a flexible screen made of this material for their future smartphones. Being the field of mobile telephony where the use of Graphite is the newest and most used.

Before standing out in its applications let's talk about how it is composed and its main characteristics that define it as a super material.

Graphite is composed of one or more sheets of graphite with a thickness of only one atom, arranged in a hexagonal and flat form. Each atom is linked with three more atoms and so on forming a large and enormous network. Each of these links are covalent and form 120º of each other of the same atom. The distance from one atom to another with which it forms a link is 142 pm (picometers).

Its characteristics and properties are the most revolutionary so far, which will change the technological world and our daily lives. We list their main characteristics:

1.Hardness: The hardness of a material is measured by the amount of energy that can absorb the material before breaking or deforming, in the case of Graphite its strength is 200 times greater than that of steel, being even harder than diamond. As we are talking about a material with an enormous resistance and that can support great weights, it is estimated that to cross a sheet of graphite with a sharp object it is necessary to exert on it a force of 4 tons.

2.Lightweight: Graphite is 5 times lighter than aluminum, making it the perfect choice for automotive, aerospace development and the manufacture of screens for mobile phones and televisions. A one square meter sheet of Graphite weighs only 0.77 milligrams, and is estimated to weigh 200 times less than a steel mine with the same surface.

3.Elasticity and Flexibility: This material presents a high Flexibility and Elasticity, it can be expanded ten percent of reversible form, being able to be applied a lot of surfaces which also increased its hardness since being moldable it has less possibilities of breaking.

4.Good Heat Conductivity: Thermal conductivity is a physical property that measures a body's ability to conduct heat, i.e. to allow heat to pass through it efficiently, this property is superior in metals but generally very inferior in other materials, and Graphite is the exception to this rule.

5.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 manufacturing solar panels, computer and mobile batteries, computer component boards, all this would significantly benefit from increasing its energy efficiency as it would produce less heat in exchange for higher performance. Although in this sense Graphite does not have resistivity (electrical resistance) what Silicon does, some experts say that Graphite as a new material that can do things that silicon can not, but in no case could replace it.

6.Transparency: It is a material almost totally transparent and joining its other characteristics such as flexibility, would be the basis of the already seen technology that makes possible flexible and transparent screens, like the screens of the Samsung brand.

7.High Density: It is a material that has Nanometric pores that do not let pass any known substance with the smallest atoms, such as Helium, except water, which if it passes through but evaporates as if it were in an open container. Which makes it ideal for water filtration in different industries.

8.Reacts Chemically with other Substances: This opens up a virtually unlimited range by serving as the basis for the creation of new materials with different characteristics and properties. Obtaining new super materials and research fields.

9.Resistance to Ionizing Radiations: Nowadays the devices that emit ionizing radiations see their useful life quickly reduced, which generates a rising cost with their use. With the use of Graphite in its construction this problem would be solved 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 of radiotherapy systems.

10.An Ecological Material: Coming from a natural substance such as graphite that is merely organic to be made up of carbon, does not pollute the environment at all, so the manufacture of current batteries that are highly polluting would be in the past quickly with the use of this new super material.

11.It is Antibacterial: It was proven that bacteria can not grow in it, making it ideal for use in the food industry as in biomedicine.

12.Self-repairing: If this material is capable of self-repair, researchers fired an electron beam on a sheet of Graphite, causing a hole in it, then applied carbon to the hole which caused the material to repair itself.

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As we could see the wonderful characteristics of this new material opens up endless possibilities in a large number of fields ranging from usual technology, through medicine, the health industry, entertainment, communications, etc... Therefore, it is not strange to say that its usefulness is practically unlimited and that the barriers to its application are only found in the human mind.

Some Applications:

The technology: In the technological field the possibilities offered by Graphite are almost unlimited, its properties in the field of electronics, which is so to speak, the basis of all technology, has high performance in the manufacture of integrated circuits to have low noise level and high mobility of carriers to be used as a channel in field effect transistors (FET).

Processors today tend to lose efficiency or energy in the form of heat, with the use of Graphite could exceed exponentially the efficiency of processors reaching very high speeds compared to those made of silicon. IBM announced in 2010 the manufacture of new transistors with this technology operating at 300 GHz.

High Speed Cables: This material could revolutionize the world of telecommunications, highlighting one of its characteristics such as capturing a large amount of light, which can be used in the creation of very fast fiber optic cables, which could move information hundreds of times faster than a current one.

Super Batteries: Today one of the weaknesses of Smartphones and tablets is the battery life, degrading the experience of users by not getting the most appropriate power with traditional lithium batteries. But with the introduction of this material in the manufacture of new batteries based on Grafeno this problem will be surpassed widely tripling the duration and the efficiency in comparison with the traditional ones.

Similarly in the field of electric cars would see a significant evolution by increasing the autonomy of these vehicles greatly, for example, in a Tesla Model S which is a super sport electric would go from 350 km to 1000 km of autonomy with the use of Graphite batteries.

The charging times of these batteries is 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 have said before this technology has already been seen first hand by the people of Samsung who have already shown us their phones with flexible touch screens. Like many more gadgets that implement this modern trend as the bracelets and "Wearable" that are already among us, bringing a better quality to the devices we use every day.

Photographic Cameras much more Sensitive: Currently conventional cameras capture the image through a sensor that is responsible for converting the light that arrives in images of digital quality, with the sensitivity of Grafeno will allow us to manufacture sensors capable of capturing images with much more quality in low-light condoms than traditional, 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 sensors of Grafeno consume 10 times less energy and their cost of production is 5 times less than traditional optical sensors.

Sport: One of the few sports where the implementation of Grafeno has been seen is in Tennis, specifically in rackets, where grafeno provides handling, durability, balance accompanied by a reduced weight.

In 2013 the company Head presented to the public the renewal of its line of racquets Speed, Instinct, Radical, Extreme and Prestige made entirely of Grafeno. Currently, the company has the patent to manufacture rackets with this material.

Medicine: Currently, the treatment to attack cancer cells consists of eliminating the affected cells as well as healthy ones, but through the application of Graphite Oxide which acts as an anti-cancer agent and only acts on the malignant cells of the affected area, 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 underway.

These examples represent only a small part of the scope that has the implementation of Graphite in our daily lives and the impact that will revolutionize life as we know it.

At this point, we wonder why this material is not mass-produced for use? Well, one of the problems to overcome in future research being carried out is its manufacture or procurement.

At present, in order to preserve all its properties, the material must be obtained with the highest possible quality. With the current methods, high quality graphite is generated but in minimal quantities, which is not enough for industrial use. And the techniques for obtaining this material are not exactly simple, so it requires a complicated industrial and technological process that allows mass production.

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The most used methods:

Graphite Exfoliation: This method consists of mechanically separating graphite sheets with some adherent material, such as adhesive tape. This procedure is the cheapest and simplest, obtaining high quality graphite but in truly minute quantities.
Carbon Atom Deposition: This method seeks to heat carbon to airborne particles, then deposit them on a substrate by cooling the suspended particles. This method can produce high quality Graphite sheets in larger quantities, but the cost of production is relatively high.
Oxidation-Reduction of Graphite Oxide: Through the use of Redox reactions Graphite Oxide can be obtained (which can be obtained in large quantities) and when purified it becomes Graphite. For this, chemical substances are used that oxidize the Graphite, for example, that contain Hydrogen that in combination with the oxygen, forms water and later it is reduced with elements composed of carbon to "fill the hollows" produced in the previous process.
Artificially: By manipulating Graphite oxide molecules to achieve the desired mechanical and electrical characteristics, high quality Graphite can be produced in relatively high quantities, and it is definitely the most expensive procedure, but it is undoubtedly one of the methods that is having the greatest impact on the manufacture of Graphite.