Everything is better with graphene! Even concrete!

Concrete made from graphene water is stronger and is much less permeable. It could save time, money and even the ecosystem.

Concrete-block
I, Katorisi GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY 2.5], from Wikimedia Commons

Graphene. This amazing material can surprise us even years after we first discovered it. Because, what else would you expect from the strongest man-made material in the world that is made of a single layer of carbon atoms? Graphene has now scored again and became the key material to improve concrete. It wasn’t even especially complicated it just needed the right idea. And scientists from the University of Exeter had that idea when they mixed flakes of graphene with water used this graphene water to make concrete. Now it’s just about getting it into industrial production which looks to be cheap, easy and fully doable.

Compared to regular concrete, graphene concrete is 146 % stronger in compressive strength, almost 80 % stronger in tensile strenght and is 4 times less permeable to water. The cherry on top is the fact that meets both British and European construction standards.

Thanks to the fact that is stronger and has a higher water resistance buildings from graphene concrete will last longer than ones made from regular concrete. Meaning, fewer repair costs and less concrete will need to be made in the future. Thus less carbon dioxide will be produced because a lot of carbon dioxide is produced when making concrete right now.

Source:

• https://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_654766_en.html
• https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adfm.201705183