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Irish scientists make wonder-material graphene in kitchen blender ~ fucking wow ?
Scientists in Ireland have demonstrated that people can make the revolutionary material graphene at home using a pencil, washing-up liquid and a kitchen blender. The material, only first produced in the laboratory in 2004, is one atom thick and is a sheet of pure carbon that has the capability to transform electronics.
Graphene
has been hailed as a wonder-material which - if it can be mass-produced
- can be used in electronics, biological engineering, photovoltaics and
energy storage. It is extremely light and stronger than steel, yet
incredibly flexible and extremely electrically conductive.
Scientists
at Trinoity College, Dublin, were tasked by the chemical company Thomas
Swan to produce a form of garophene that could be of a purer form that
that being currently manufactured.
Researchers
in AMBER, the Science Foundation Ireland funded materials science
centre headquartered at CRANN, Trinity College Dublin have, for the
first time, developed a new method of producing industrial quantities of
high quality graphene.
The
scientists puit graphite powder - found in pencils - and a solvent
mixture into a laboratory mixer and found that they could produce
graphene at a rate of 5 grams an hour.
Later
they scaled this and used a domestic kitchen blender and Fairy Liquid -
a standard washing-up liquid in the UK - and found that they could
mass-produce high quality graphene.
The
discovery will change the way many consumer and industrial products are
manufactured. The materials will have a multitude of potential
applications including advanced food packaging; high strength plastics;
foldable touch screens for mobile phones and laptops; super-protective
coatings for wind turbines and ships; faster broadband and batteries
with dramatically higher capacity than anything available today.
Prof Jonathan Coleman, Professor of Chemical Physics at Trinity College and AMBER said: "Graphene
has been identified as a life changing material and to be involved at
this stage of development is a wonderful achievement”.
Professor Jonathan Coleman (Trinity College)
Minister for Research and Innovation Sean Sherlock, TD commented; “This
is something that USA, China, Australia, UK, Germany and other leading
nations have all been striving for and have not yet achieved. This
announcement shows how the Irish Government’s strategy of focusing
investment in science with impact, as well as encouraging industry and
academic collaboration, is working.”
Prof
Mark Ferguson, Director General of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and
Chief Scientific Adviser to the Irish Government said: “This is a
very significant global achievement for Prof Coleman and AMBER. The
research and licence agreement with Thomas Swan is an example of the
real industry partnerships which SFI is establishing and developing.
This research discovery opens the door for industry worldwide to bring
their graphene ideas to commercial reality and is an example of the
innovative research being conducted by the internationally renowned SFI
Research centres.”
The
discovery will change the way many consumer and industrial products are
manufactured. The materials will have a multitude of potential
applications including advanced food packaging; high strength plastics;
foldable touch screens for mobile phones and laptops; super-protective
coatings for wind turbines and ships; faster broadband and batteries
with dramatically higher capacity than anything available today.
(VoR, Trinity College Dublin)
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