Post by williamplayer on Jan 15, 2015 13:54:57 GMT
The Myriad uses of Amazing Graphene
A graphene membrane is twice as good at stopping a projectile as Kevlar, but when it does rupture, it does so in a predictable petal pattern along weak points in its structure.Credit: Credit: Photo illustration by Jae-Hwang Lee/Rice University
Since its discovery graphene has been hailed as a wonder-material. Now add two new properties to the list – the strength to stop a bullet and the finesse to let a proton through. But when will we see some real-life applications? Cathal O’Connell investigates.
What’s stronger than steel, tougher than a diamond and more conductive than copper? It’s graphene.
This one atom thick tissue of carbon has been hailed as a wonder-material since being discovered in 2004. But wait, there’s more. A recent paper in Science has revealed graphene is twice as bullet-proof as Kevlar. And a few days earlier, a paper in Nature showed graphene allows protons – and only protons – through its mesh. This ability might be used to draw hydrogen, a potential fuel, right out of the air, say the Nobel prize winning scientists who discovered it.
Graphene is the crowning achievement of modern day alchemists who’ve spent decades bending and twisting carbon to create weird and wonderful new forms. This most commonplace of elements is a key player in the chemistry of life, and is also proving to be a highly versatile performer in other arenas.
Thirty years ago textbooks listed four varieties of carbon: diamond (the hardest material then known), graphite (better known as pencil lead), amorphous carbon (or soot), and carbon fibre (hard rods of pure carbon that can be used as fillers to increase the strength of plastics).
Then in 1985, English chemist Harry Kroto was inspired by the stars. Examining their spectral signatures, he noticed some carried an unusual form of carbon which he guessed might have the structure of long rods. To test the idea he collaborated with American researchers who reproduced stellar conditions on Earth using a furnace that created a gas of pure carbon at high temperatures. As the carbon cloud cooled it condensed to form a variety of molecules. One of them, made of exactly 60 carbon atoms, turned out to be a sphere of pentagonal and hexagonal panels, like a soccer ball. It also proved to be extremely stable. Kroto and his colleagues named the molecule buckminsterfullerene, in honour of Buckminster ("Bucky") Fuller, the American architect and engineer who used a similar highly stable structure in his visionary designs. Explorations of the new “buckyball” and related structures (known collectively as fullerenes) became the newest buzz in materials chemistry.
By the early 1990s Japanese scientist Sumio Iijima had hopped on the bandwagon. In 1991 he was synthesising fullerenes by sparking an electric current across two carbon electrodes, and found a hard deposit growing on their sides. Investigating further he found long, thin tubes of carbon. Carbon nanotubes turned out to be the strongest materials then known. Calculations showed that, if they could be scaled up and bundled together, they would be strong enough to fulfil futurist author Arthur C. Clark’s dream of a “space-elevator”– a cord thousands of kilometres long that could tether an orbiting satellite to the Earth.
It was later discovered that carbon nanotubes had already earned a place in history. A 2006 paper in Nature reported that carbon nanotubes had been found in the steel of a Damascan sword forged in 17th century Syria, which may explain the legendary reputation these blades attained during the Crusades.
READ FULL ARTICLE: cosmosmagazine.com/physical-sciences/myriad-uses-amazing-graphene
A graphene membrane is twice as good at stopping a projectile as Kevlar, but when it does rupture, it does so in a predictable petal pattern along weak points in its structure.Credit: Credit: Photo illustration by Jae-Hwang Lee/Rice University
Since its discovery graphene has been hailed as a wonder-material. Now add two new properties to the list – the strength to stop a bullet and the finesse to let a proton through. But when will we see some real-life applications? Cathal O’Connell investigates.
What’s stronger than steel, tougher than a diamond and more conductive than copper? It’s graphene.
This one atom thick tissue of carbon has been hailed as a wonder-material since being discovered in 2004. But wait, there’s more. A recent paper in Science has revealed graphene is twice as bullet-proof as Kevlar. And a few days earlier, a paper in Nature showed graphene allows protons – and only protons – through its mesh. This ability might be used to draw hydrogen, a potential fuel, right out of the air, say the Nobel prize winning scientists who discovered it.
Graphene is the crowning achievement of modern day alchemists who’ve spent decades bending and twisting carbon to create weird and wonderful new forms. This most commonplace of elements is a key player in the chemistry of life, and is also proving to be a highly versatile performer in other arenas.
Thirty years ago textbooks listed four varieties of carbon: diamond (the hardest material then known), graphite (better known as pencil lead), amorphous carbon (or soot), and carbon fibre (hard rods of pure carbon that can be used as fillers to increase the strength of plastics).
Then in 1985, English chemist Harry Kroto was inspired by the stars. Examining their spectral signatures, he noticed some carried an unusual form of carbon which he guessed might have the structure of long rods. To test the idea he collaborated with American researchers who reproduced stellar conditions on Earth using a furnace that created a gas of pure carbon at high temperatures. As the carbon cloud cooled it condensed to form a variety of molecules. One of them, made of exactly 60 carbon atoms, turned out to be a sphere of pentagonal and hexagonal panels, like a soccer ball. It also proved to be extremely stable. Kroto and his colleagues named the molecule buckminsterfullerene, in honour of Buckminster ("Bucky") Fuller, the American architect and engineer who used a similar highly stable structure in his visionary designs. Explorations of the new “buckyball” and related structures (known collectively as fullerenes) became the newest buzz in materials chemistry.
By the early 1990s Japanese scientist Sumio Iijima had hopped on the bandwagon. In 1991 he was synthesising fullerenes by sparking an electric current across two carbon electrodes, and found a hard deposit growing on their sides. Investigating further he found long, thin tubes of carbon. Carbon nanotubes turned out to be the strongest materials then known. Calculations showed that, if they could be scaled up and bundled together, they would be strong enough to fulfil futurist author Arthur C. Clark’s dream of a “space-elevator”– a cord thousands of kilometres long that could tether an orbiting satellite to the Earth.
It was later discovered that carbon nanotubes had already earned a place in history. A 2006 paper in Nature reported that carbon nanotubes had been found in the steel of a Damascan sword forged in 17th century Syria, which may explain the legendary reputation these blades attained during the Crusades.
READ FULL ARTICLE: cosmosmagazine.com/physical-sciences/myriad-uses-amazing-graphene