Significant science breakthrough in Graphene production.

[BlueLion]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/19/better-graphene-making-process-breakthrough_n_6891226.html



Graphene just might be the world's most incredible material. A honeycomb-like sheet of pure carbon only one atom thick, it's one million times thinner than a human hair and yet 200 times stronger than steel. It's also an excellent conductor of heat and electricity and is stretchable, flexible, transparent, and impermeable.

And now scientists at Caltech in Pasadena, Calif. say they have figured out how to make the stuff on an industrial scale--a breakthrough that could open the floodgates to a seemingly endless array of graphene-based products.


Game-changing products. How about a cell phone you could fold up like a handkerchief and stick in your pocket? Or a giant video screen you could hang on the wall like a sheet? Or how about ultra-fast-charging batteries, or super-efficient see-through solar cells?

All those and many more products may be available in the not-too-distant future, Dr. David A. Boyd, a staff scientist at the university and the researcher credited with developing the new graphene-making process, told The Huffington Post.

 

[Ranger Dan]

I read that in the United magazine last week and was wondering

why this wasn't front page news. Maybe it's fear of crying wolf like the cold fusion claims a few years ago or maybe its not as partical in application like the hydrogen fuel cell idea. The article I read even talked about invisibility cloaks/camoflauge potential. The stuff sounds like the best thing since flubber!

 

[Class of 67]

Another process discovered by accident.

Boyd wasn't having any luck until a phone call distracted him and he inadvertently let the copper heat for longer than the usual time. When he returned from the call, he discovered that graphene had indeed formed--because the extra heating had removed a key impurity.

 

[T J]

IF we can cost-effectively use it, we could be in the Age of Graphene.


Stunning capabilities, if they can use them in practical real world products.

 

[NapaNit]

I'm with a start-up that folds materials (structural origami)


into products. We do composites, metals, polymers and papers. The process provides extreme capability and sustainability. Anyhow, we have toyed w/ folding graphene and it works very nicely. Stuff has a super slick surface!

 

[thecoolestfish]

Oil companies moving to buy patent for production process!!!

....So they can make sure it never happens. Just kidding ... Kinda.

 

[psuguy04]

^^^Let me know if you need investors for that startup!

nfm

 

[LafayetteBear]

Re: ^^^Let me know if you need investors for that startup!


I can see it now. The all new I-Bra, made entirely of graphene.

 

[psuro]

So, we are done with the Age of Aquarius?*


d

 

[demlion]

Charges your cellphone while you walk down the sunny side of the street!*

&*

 

[Woodpecker]

Come in Rangoon!

 

[Obliviax]

Is harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust abounding?*

sda

 

[Leo Ridens]

I like the bra idea. Single-layer graphene is 97% transparent.***

***

 

[RobBliz]

Will it be bigger than the Segway?

 

[T J]

Cal Tech accidents produce Graphene production breakthrough


Lucky errors led to a process to make Graphene very quickly, much cheaper and in a more pure state.

Hope so... Mankind could use another stunning breakthrough in material technology.

Hope we may be entering the Age of Graphene, that could create revolutionary new product applications.

It may be used in multiple fields, to make much better batteries, to create unique applications for better electronic products and to greatly improving strength of products.


From the full article at the link...

Scientists develop cool process to make better graphene (and much cheaper)
[/B]
Date: March 18, 2015
Source: California Institute of Technology

These are images of early-stage growth of graphene on copper. The lines of hexagons are graphene nuclei, with increasing magnification from left to right, where the scale bars from left to right correspond to 10 m, 1 m, and 200 nm, respectively. The hexagons grow together into a seamless sheet of graphene.
Credit: Courtesy of D. Boyd and N. Yeh labs/Caltech
Summary:

A new technique to produce graphene -- a material made up of an atom-thick layer of carbon -- at room temperature could help pave the way for commercially feasible graphene-based solar cells and light-emitting diodes, large-panel displays, and flexible electronics.

"With this new technique, we can grow large sheets of electronic-grade graphene in much less time and at much lower temperatures," says Caltech staff scientist David Boyd, who developed the method.
Boyd is the first author of a new study, published in the March 18 issue of the journal Nature Communications, detailing the new manufacturing process and the novel properties of the graphene it produces.

Graphene could revolutionize a variety of engineering and scientific fields due to its unique properties, which include a tensile strength 200 times stronger than steel and an electrical mobility that is two to three orders of magnitude better than silicon. The electrical mobility of a material is a measure of how easily electrons can travel across its surface.

During one of his attempts to reproduce the experiment, the phone rang. While Boyd took the call, he unintentionally let a copper foil heat for longer than usual before exposing it to methane vapor, which provides the carbon atoms needed for graphene growth.

When later Boyd examined the copper plate using Raman spectroscopy, a technique used for detecting and identifying graphene, he saw evidence that a graphene layer had indeed formed. "It was an 'A-ha!' moment," Boyd says. "I realized then that the trick to growth is to have a very clean surface, one without the copper oxide."

At first, Boyd could not figure out why the technique was so successful. He later discovered that two leaky valves were letting in trace amounts of methane into the experiment chamber. "The valves were letting in just the right amount of methane for graphene to grow," he says.

The ability to produce graphene without the need for active heating not only reduces manufacturing costs, but also results in a better product because fewer defects--introduced as a result of thermal expansion and contraction processes--are generated. This in turn eliminates the need for multiple postproduction steps.

"Typically, it takes about ten hours and nine to ten different steps to make a batch of high-mobility graphene using high-temperature growth methods," Yeh says.
"Our process involves one step, and it takes five minutes."

Scanning tunneling microscopic images showing individual carbon molecules that make up sheet of graphene.


A scaled-up version of their plasma technique could open the door for new kinds of electronics manufacturing, Yeh says. For example, graphene sheets with low concentrations of defects could be used to protect materials against degradation from exposure to the environment.

Another possibility would be to grow large sheets of graphene that can be used as a transparent conducting electrode for solar cells and display panels. "In the future, you could have graphene-based cell-phone displays that generate their own power"

This post was edited on 3/19 5:14 PM by T J

New cool process to make graphene cheaper & better

 

[T J]

Million times smaller than width of hair... "Long beautiful hair..."


"Shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen"

 

[Cletus11]

There is actually a ton of stuff going on right now in science that is pretty amazing. I dare to say that we are going through almost a secondary age of enlightment with respect to new materials of construction, new biology and genetic manipulations, new medicines, sustainable energy improvements and breakthroughts.

I actually think the next 10-20 years are going to create some incredible stuff if things can keep moving forward.

 

[NapaNit]

And speaking of bras.......! Our technologies span from

the Jurrasic to the futuristic. We've developed spiral-wound structure for pipelines and tubes (Hyper) that are continuous and can be laid in the field. That's one of the futuristics. There's also a polymer block pallet that handles 'big-boy' loads but weighs only 10 lbs. We wrap the sides of this pallet with a polymer 'bra' that can be dyed and/or branded. It could be transparent but she's gonna need a gruesome figure! =)

 

[91Joe95]

Where do you think the carbon will come from? **

nm

 

[john4psu]

I am a somewhat investment gun shy after what happened with the World Football League.

 

[T J]

Good point. If successful may put crimp in nutty anti-science "anti-carbon" hysteria


Funny watching the anti-science, "anti-Carbon" propaganda campaigns for political purposes, to fool the masses.

The Propaganda is that "Organic" is a "good" term and people should buy organic.

But all Carbon-based products are Organic Chemistry. The silly demonization campaigns against "carbon" never mention that carbon is the base of all "Organic Chemistry" and all "Organic" products. Whoops!