I’ve been hearing a lot about Graphene lately. It seems to be the next big thing and has been touted as soon replacing ‘Silicon’ (think ‘Silicon chip’, ‘Silicon Valley’ etc.. ), and due to its chemical and physical properties, giving rise to a new generation of products which will make those of today seem like relics from a by-gone era.
As far as materials go, it is very exciting: Graphene is one of the strongest materials known to man -a sheet of it as thin as clingfilm is strong enough to support an elephant-, yet it can also stretch like rubber. It is virtually invisible but at the same time can conduct electricity and heat better than any copper wire. It can also be seeded into other materials such as plastic, so that this can be made to conduct electricity. Indeed, It’s been claimed to be the most important synthetic material to be invented since plastic 100 years ago. Given the range of properties it exhibits though, strength, flexibility, conductivity, lightness, transparency, potential abundance and resistance to heat and chemicals, it is arguably more significant.
Source: Bournemouth University Research
Graphene is made from graphite which you’ll find in any lead pencil and was first created at the University of Manchester by researchers who developed the technique of pulling graphite apart with sticky tape -more or less- until they reached Graphene a material which is 1 atom thick. For this they won a Nobel Prize.
Apart from its use in integrated circuits, there is a whole range of other potential uses for Graphene: Sensors, Anti-bacterial agent, batteries, DNA sequencing and solar cells to name but a few. Graphene could lead to a new class of transparent, flexible electronic devices: e.g. mobile phones that can be rolled up or bright high definition displays that can be screwed up like newspaper. And inevitably we haven’t even conceived some of it’s most common uses yet, much in the way it would have been impossible to conceive how plastic would eventually come to be used when it was invented over 100 years ago.
However it’s not all plain sailing. A problem is working with its extreme conductivity which is difficult to control – a necessity if it is to replace silicon as the basis of integrated circuits. Many researchers are highly cautious about saying it will replace silicon. However research into graphene is becoming a matter of priority for governments and companies around the world. 200 companies ranging from big players such as Samsung and IBM to a host of start-ups are currently involved in graphene research, while the EU is likely to award around 1 billion euros in the next ten years. Graphene is very likely to be a material which features heavily in our livesin the not too distant future.
Watch this space….
towards 2050 