They called it the “Friday Night Experiment”. Andre Skya physicist at the Manchester Center for Mesoscience and Nanotechnology (CMN), and his PhD candidate, Constantine Novosilov, devoted his evening entertainment to working outside the usual fields of science, rather than going home. “Why don’t we build a graphite transistor?” they wondered.and through serendipityin their second effort, they got the material that awarded them the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics six years later: graphene, material of the future.
Graphene is One atom thick graphite coating and invisible to the human eye. Its properties are record breaking. The strongest, most flexible, lightest and best known heat transfer material everA few facts to help you figure it all out: It’s 200 times stronger than steel and one-fifth the weight of aluminum.
With this set of properties, it seems logical that the industry is engaged in a feverish race to capitalize on its strengths and develop all sorts of uses for graphene. explained in the gallery.
Fuentes: El País, El Economista, Tuexperto, BBC, Vofeel, Computer Today
Considering that graphene is transparent and one of its most important properties is conductivity, it’s no surprise that research studies are being conducted on this material. Mainly related to use in solar panelsIn fact, some scientists believe that this material emits photons. multiple electrons can carry electricity.
Now the Chinese research team is going one step further by developing graphene solar panel Energy can be generated from rainfall. These panels feature a graphene coating that reacts to ions in raindrops by generating electricity. Scientists have yet to improve the performance of current panels on sunny days and are looking to enhance their properties, but they could be the perfect solution for harnessing solar energy in areas with little sunshine. there is.
In the field of sustainability, graphene has found an indispensable partner. Desalination and water treatment This material is very promising.
Under a microscope lens, the sheets of graphene have a hexagonal structure featuring very small holes, but these holes remain large enough for water molecules to pass through. This permeability may turn graphene into an ideal filter for trapping contaminants and purifying water.
Some time ago, MIT scientists successfully removed salt particles from water. graphene nanopore Two to three times faster than current technology.Besides, researchers at the University of California have made a thin design graphene-based membrane It can filter water, effectively remove its contaminants, and use less energy than current procedures.
Due to the properties of graphene, the textile world is turning to this material and designing new kinds of fabrics. Its durability and lightness make it possible to tailor bulletproof clothing that is essential for police officers and the military.
In addition, its conductivity has allowed a group of developers flexible and flexible integration. Transparent graphene electrodes in textile fibers To turn clothes into truly portable or wearable devices that are lightweight, durable, and easy to carry.
Every year, electronic device makers launch new products with features that were unthinkable less than a decade ago, such as facial recognition, water resistance, and fingerprint sensors. Technology is now waiting for a new revolution: flexible screens. In this scenario, graphene is indeed flexible, transparent, and conductive, a perfect combination for that purpose.
Currently, development of flexible screens is still in its infancy, but a group of engineers at the University of Exeter in the UK have come up with a compound Consists of two sheets of graphene and a ferric chloride molecular coating it allows Flexible electronic device manufacturing, It features higher luminosity and lower energy consumption.
Combining all these smaller development, long lasting batteryThis comes with another significant graphene-related breakthrough in the mobile phone space, and perhaps soon we’ll be able to fold and carry smartphones and tablets in our wallets.
Most of the innovative industries are now playing with graphene to exploit its strengths, but the procedure to obtain this material is still very complicated and expensive as it utilizes explosive compressed gases. is.
However, when scientists at an Australian institution Shiro developed a new technology to Producing graphene from soybean oilThe procedure consists of heating the 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.
