Slashdot Mirror
Graphene Sheets Get Easier To Manufacture
grunaura writes "South Korean researchers have devised a way to create graphene sheets one centimeter square using a hydrocarbon vapor on heated nickel. It's touted as being more efficient than the current process where graphene sheets are pressed, and there is evidence that 'the quality of graphene grown by chemical vapour deposition is as high as mechanically cleaved graphene.' Graphene is relatively new, but not to Slashdot. This round of news highlighting the technology focuses on the bendable nature of graphene sheets, as opposed to the memory applications or capacitive properties discussed here previously. These films are the closest we have come to superconductors at room temperature."
Now we just need to make some atomic-scale chickens...
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These films are the closest we have come to superconductors at room temperature.
Isn't it likely that further refinements will only marginally improve the effectiveness? Unless it is really close to being a room-temperature superconductor already, I don't see them achieving their goal with graphene.
This breakthrough has the same potential to do to graphine research as did mass production of nanotubes and other nanomaterials. The more readily available the more research can be done. As the price goes down more can get a hold of the material. Maybe we can finally create more powerful chips using this as a substrate.
Procrastinating life a way at a rapid rate of speed.
Mention was made of its capacitive properties. If you could make continual graphene sheets, for example, and roll them up together with a similarly thin insulator, you could create supercapacitors that would charge almost instantly, yet still store enough charge, at high voltage, to blow off entire limbs if you were not careful... and still be not much bigger than the head of a pin.
As long as heat dissipation was accounted for, you could charge an electric car in 5 minutes, and easily drive from Seattle to Los Angeles without stopping.
So yeah... it's a pretty major thing. There are still other applications that could be astounding, like superstrong composites. Space elevator, anyone?
Of course we care about superconductors, but this stuff will be incredible even if it hardly conducts at all.
Can it replace copper for wires?
A small disclaimer: i am working with low-temperature supercondutors, but i only use them in an application, i am not researching these.
That said, i state my opinion from somebody who want to build sth out of superconductors: The hunt for a room temperature SC has consumed a lot of attention, money, and research time. It would be better to stop focusing on searching for a RT superconductor, and to stop telling everybody you want to do so. In 90% of the cases other properties of the SC prevent its widespread use. That is, because during the last 20 years cooling technology has made great progress. Nowadays, you can buy "press a button and a few hours later you are at 100mK" systems of the shelf, as well as hand held pulse coolers going down to 5K. For most applications, where superconductors would replace normal condutors, cooling is a big issue with normal conductors already. E.g. high field coils build with normal technolody consume incredible amounts of cooling water, which make cooling the same mass to a lower temperature, but much lower cooling power a very favorable idea. In electronics, air conditioners of computing centers now are already big.
While i believe that graphene is one of the very promising new materials, i dont see it application as superconductor soon. My suggestion for the community would be not to blow out too much research time of this, but focus on the unique properties of the material. If as a byproduct, it turns out to a good SC, it will take 10-15more years to develop applications using it. Moreover, the continuous fantasy of the room temperature SC has worn off a lot of its glory since the first discoveries of HTSCs. The possible disappointment in funding agencies associated with even mentioning this is a dangerous thing. Otherwise i believe whatever you can with graphene, there is a load of really fascinating new physics to be done. But first telling "hey we are close to a room temperature SC" may take the attention of the referee and when reviewing you results, he may say: "you did not do what you promised" instead of "fascinating new science you did!". That is, because the referee is selected to be matching the field of the project. Would i work on graphene mono layers i would prefer to have a senior 2DEG guy as a referee instead on of the HT brewing alchemists (sorry, this is note meant negative - it just honors the fact that the HTC experimentalists are still out in the dark, because theorists did not yet come up with a conclusive theory...., most experimentalist in the field do great experiments with combining really cool analysis methods with great care and use a systematic way of exploring the parameter space of HTC materials, which is fascinating. I am not patient enough to do that.) .
Currently, there are three methods for creating circuits using graphine. Smashing, spraying and now vapor grown. If the graphine is perfect and I mean, every carbon atom utilizing its four bonds to connect to another carbon atom, we get pretty close to super conductor. These sheets per the nature article are at ~280Ohms resistance. Once we have the ability to reliably "print" sheets with circuits, we come to the point of refining our circuits for each application and we can then get away from "central processing" for further imporovements. We have a long way to go with this technology but the future looks bright.
Rihanna already has a handbag made of this stuff: ... Graphine Bag in Azur
Very interesting. I often hear that in the next few years a Nobel will be given related to graphene (Geim more than likely).
Bismuth nanotubes are superconductors at room temperature, if you can make them thin enough - just a few molecules in diameter. One process for making them is by growing a thread between two point electrodes in a molten epoxy-bismuth mixture. Gradually draw the electrodes apart as the nanotube grows in length.
-Ruggy
but is it as strong as transparent aluminum?
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
Superconducting does not just mean very low resistance. It means unique magnetic properties as well. Graphene is not a high temperature superconductor. It is a very good conductor, thats all.
It's already been done in Sweden, by Mikael SyvijÃrvi at LinkÃping Institute of Technology.
This is disgusting!!! CmdrTaco, please ban this asshole so he can't post any more shit like this!!!
Stud dogs go about the whole sex thing rather differently than primates (or equines). Unlike us, male canines don't have an orgasm that involves a short, intense ejaculation. Instead, once they have become fully erect, they will have a continuous orgasm for from 10 to 45 minutes or longer. The "standard" procedure for dogs, when they are mating, is that the male "ties" with the bitch - which means that, after he has penetrated fully, his penis will develop a knot at its base that is several times wider than the rest of his shaft.
For reference, a 80 pound Golden stud dog might have, let's say, a cock that is 7 or 8 inches long when erect - but his knot will be at least as big around as a tennis ball. This knot swells inside the bitch, and so long as he remains erect the dogs are "tied." No, this isn't painful for her - canine females long ago developed an entire set of muscular supports for this process. Generally, once they are tied, most stud dogs prefer to step off and over, so he and the bitch are tail-to-tail. Theories abound on why this evolved - I have yet to see one that was truly convincing. Anyway, they'll stand like this, with the male having a continuous orgasm during the whole tie - until he starts to shrink and they pop apart. Bitches also have orgasms, and she'll likely have quite a few during the tie, as well - research has shown that her orgasms are essential to increasing the chances of pregnancy, due to muscular contractions.
Anyway. if a guy like me has a stud dog partner, one form of intimacy is for him to tie with us, anally. As young teenagers, many of us learned the hard way about the knot, and the tie - particularly back in pre-interweb days. So we'd suddenly find ourselves locked together, with this tennis-ball width cock inside us. Nowadays, I suspect most young zoos know all about this. However, some folks still have eyes bigger than their stomach, err their you-know-what.
It would not be accurate to say that I have a stream of visitors who show up at my house just for sex with my canine partners. However, it is true that I do not exercise any sort of unilateral control/ownership over the relationships my canine boys might develop with other people - they are adults, and if they desire to get frisky with another two-legger and I judge that the person is respectful and unlikely to do anything mean or stupid, I have no moral ground on which to say "oh, no, you aren't allowed - he can only have sex with me." That just makes no sense, so if there's a time when a friend is visiting and there's a spark between them and one of my partners, I'm ok with that. In truth, I think it's great to have the boys' enjoy other positive relationships and I love to see them happy, whatever the circumstances.
Many years ago, my friend Commander Taco was visiting - a zoo who had been active with his own stud dog for quite a few years. His boy was a breed that is not small, but is also somewhat known by old-school zoos as being, well, on average not so well-endowed relative to their body size. This friend had tied with his partner on a number of occasions - and he often talked about how intense and rewarding the experience was, for both of them. That's great, I said - while thinking that he'd probably not fare so well with a larger breed.
As it turns out, Taco and one of my canine friends hit it off quite clearly right from the get-go - the chemistry was there and the two of them seemed like they'd known each other for ages. After several visits, I could see that they were sort of getting closer and closer - my friend Taco was worried that I'd feel he was somehow intruding into my relationship with this handsome stud dog - who had been in my own family for close to a decade. Of course not, I told him - if you guys hit it off and things get steamy, I'd hardly throw cold water on it just so I can be all possessive and insecure. HOWEVER, I warned him, that hands
I had thought that that slogan was about accidents caused by drunk drivers, but now that you mention it, I see it can also lead to longer non-stop travel.
Nah, they just need to claim it's "oxygen-free carbon" and audiophiles will pay whatever the price is to get it.
I'm having trouble finding any source to back this up.
This is a great paper, I've already tried this technique and it easily produces graphene.
Strangely, this technique is not new. This paper kind of jump-started many memories in the field and it turns out that in the 1980s, people were already growing graphene with a method similar to this, and identified it as single layer graphite. There are even atomic resolution images of graphene from the early 90s. For a material "discovered" in 2004, that's kind of a shock. It turns out the word "graphene" didn't show up until 2004, and no one made good electrical devices until then.
Graphene is not a room temperature superconductor... it's just the best room temperature conductor we've found. Nobody panic.
I guess that's why the abstract focuses on the conductivity and the transparency of the material. Samsung very obviously wants to be the world number one in imaging and printing, and there is growing evidence that they are going to achieve it.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
{{Fact|date=January 2009}}
Stop modding this up - bismuth nanotubes are not room temperature superconductors, regardless of diameter. Semiconducting? Sure. Superconducting? Absolutely not. By the way, what does 'few molecules in diameter' even mean??
agreed. the mention of superconductivity in the blurb is nothing more than using buzz words in a technically correct manner though graphene is not being touted as a superconductor.
point taken.
Okay... you could drive from Seattle to L.A. without stopping to charge the vehicle. How's that?
I hate to be a pedant, especially in my first post, however, I feel that I must inform you that each of the carbon atoms in graphene (as in a single sheet of graphite) only form 3 covalent bonds with their neighbouring carbon atom. The fourth valency remains unbonded and the electron in question is delocalised across the system - giving graphene its conductive capaicity. I hope that this clears things up. This whole thing does sound exciting, though... Who know what the future holds for this technology?
Superconducting does not just mean very low resistance. It means unique magnetic properties as well. Graphene is not a high temperature superconductor. It is a very good conductor, thats all.
This is not correct. The magnetic properties are derived from the resistance. Superconductor does not mean low resistance it means zero resistance (or significantly near).
Mod up, funny.
*neighbouring carbon atoms.
See US Patent #4325795 which details this process of producing room temperature superconducting filaments of bismuth.
www.rexresearch.com/bourgoin/bourgo~1.htm
-Ruggy (grandparent poster)
See US Patent #4325795 for details, or this copy at:
www.rexresearch.com/bourgoin/bourgo~1.htm
"A few molecules" in my grandparent post means that after 27 years I didn't offhand recall the exact diameter predicted by the underlying theoretical work which this patent proves, but the requirement is something like 5 or 6 molecules in diameter to achieve the effect.
-Ruggy (grandparent poster)
> We just need to deal with the minor issue of designing a domestic power supply that can
> deliver the 50-100KWh needed to charge such a vehicle within 5 minutes.
You use hyperconductive (not superconductive) graphene cables. There are many applications other than the trendy ones for extremely high-conductivity materials.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
I thought the preferred current method for making graphene sheets was peeling off pencil marks with a piece of Scotch tape.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
How about standardizing "energy modules" so that they can be swapped out in 10 minutes or less. That way the "service stations" could keep enough in stock to fast charge and still be able to handle the flow of customers. As energy storage technology improves then the energy modules will weigh less, be smaller, etc but the service stations would handle the upgrading as you would only lease the module until you reach the next service station. Cheaper cars, upgradable, no waiting for charges...?
Be as you would have the world become.