Able to make the internet run 100 times faster and produce flexible, super-thin, almost invisible wearables - you've probably heard of something many are calling a 'wonder material: graphene.
It's certainly different from the boring old silicon we're used to - after all, one million sheets of graphene are just a single millimetre thick. Many think we could be on the brink of a new industrial revolution.
The first truly two-dimensional crystal, graphene is the thinnest, strongest, lightest, stiffest material ever made. It's transparent, flexible and it conducts both electricity and heat very well.
So, as you can see, if it lives up to its potential it could change pretty much everything we use and need each day - but how realistic are the claims?
Why is graphene so exciting?
Graphene can do almost anything that makes technology brilliant - and do it better. Want lithium batteries to last ten times longer, but take only a few minutes to recharge? Graphene can do that. Want to make bendy touchscreens, or print solar cells, or make something harder than diamond?
Or make thin, light structures that are 200 times stronger than ones made from steel? Graphene's good for all that too. It can even be used to create motion-sensing windows that read gestures, nano-sensors that detect breast cancer and smartphone batteries that recharge in just a few minutes.
Sticky tape and pencils
Graphene was discovered – via some Sellotape and the graphite in a pencil, no less – in 2004 by Sir Andre Geim and Sir Konstantin Novoselov at the University of Manchester – both of whom earned a Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010 as a result.
Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in February 2016, Novoselov explained why the world was so excited about his discovery rather succinctly: "All the carbon atoms are arranged in a 2D frame, one atom thick fabric.
0 comments:
Post a Comment