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Researchers Make Graphene From Girl Scout Cookies
An anonymous reader writes "Last year we learned that the miracle material graphene could be made from common table sugar, and now researchers at Rice University have taken the discovery one step further by literally baking it from a box of girl scout cookies. A group of graduate students led by chemist James Tour recently teamed up with Houston Girl Scout troop 25080 to perform the feat using a single box of Trefoil cookies — which could potentially yield $15 billion worth of graphene."
... to perform the feat using a single box of Trefoil cookies — which could potentially yield $15 billion worth of graphene
It could potentially reduce the price of $15 billion worth of graphene to a single box of Terfoil cookies. Here, fixed that for you.
Because at the rate the dollar is going, in 5 years $15 billion is only going to buy you a box of girl scout cookies. And I'll take thinmint.
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
No, it's an important way to get girls involved in research, so that they can learn at an early age that girls can do many different things, such as bake cookies for scientists.
The most exalted rulers of France used to dine on aluminum tableware, as aluminum was more valuable than gold. Then we discovered how to electrolytically extract it from sand. Now we package sugar water in it. The first time they made aluminum that way, they got super rich as they sold just under the amount it was going for, and the price just kept going down from there.
Judging from how much carbon I create whenever I try baking, I"m sure there has to be a butt load of graphene in the oven
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
NOT pointless. It shows that the impurities in the starting material are irrelevant to the process, meaning that this process is going to make graphene cheaper than paper before long.
This is equivalent to someone inventing a process for producing super-high quality silicon from sandy mud without purification steps. Currently, only the highest grade of silica can be used for manufacturing of that type.
At that point there won't be any Girl Scout cookies left to buy, since the Girl Scouts will have switched to selling graphene.
They will however trademark the name "Very, Very Thin Mint".
"calculated that at the then-commercial rate for pristine graphene -- $250 for a two-inch square -- a box of traditional shortbread Girl Scout Cookies could turn a $15 billion profit."
So it definitely doesn't cost more to make than it's worth. They've already done the calculation and the $15bil was just the profit.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Another interesting fact along the same lines is the cap on the Washington Monument is also made out of aluminum for the same reason. To quote the Wikipedia article on the Washington Monument:
it was finally completed, with the 100 ounce (2.85 kg) aluminum tip/lightning-rod being put in place on December 6, 1884. The tip was the largest single piece of aluminum cast at the time, when aluminum commanded a price comparable to silver. Two years later, the Hall–Héroult process made aluminum easier to produce and the price of aluminum plummeted, making the once-valuable tip nearly worthless
Time to offend someone
There is a cost for purity.
I can buy sugar at grocery store prices. I can go to the pharmacy and spend a bit more for the same glucose molecules. I can go to Fischer and pay a dear price for the same glucose molecules. The difference is not only the price, but what I get with my glucose.
At the store I get glucose and a whole lot more. At concentrations suitable for food production, the "whole lot more" isn't very important. At the pharmacy, I'm starting to get into the ~99% glucose range. That's much better for types of cooking where purity becomes important. For example, one could easily do spun sugar or sugar sculpture from pharmacy sugar, but it would be very difficult (if not impossible) to do it from regular baking sugar. At the labroatory supply, I can buy 99.997% pure glucose. It may be overkill for some experiments; but, it allows me to not be so concerned with whether the effects I see are tied to the procedure or the impurity of the reagents.
I'll bet that girl scout graphene is more about detecting traces of graphene in a very dirty sample. Even if there were a girl scout graphene plant, it would likely cost quite a bit to isolate and purify the graphene in ways that doesn't include other carbon molecules, residues of solvents, etc.
In other words, the price of graphene might drop; but, there's a lot more to "making" graphene than finding it in a residue.
Soylent Graphene?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
I used to think you Americans and your obsession with girlscout cookies were weird in a sort of cutesy way.
Then a few years ago my dad brought some thin mints back from a business trip to the US, a colleague had evidently been selling them in the office.
Now I understand.
I don't know how things are where you live, but here Girl Scouts don't bake cookies. They just buy mass produced packages in bulk and resell with markup. This adequately prepares them for functioning in our society that no longer produces anything, and, evidently, doesn't even want to.
Researcher: The girl-scout-derivative graphene is also delicious.
Girl Scout: That's good!
Researcher: But it is exceedingly expensive, even compared to the price of your cookies.
Girl Scout: That's bad!
Researcher: But each short ton of graphene is delivered with a free box of Tagalongs.
Girl Scout: That's good!
Researcher: The Tagalongs are similarly cursed.
Girl Scout: Cursed?
Researcher: Delicious but exceedingly expensive.
Girl Scout: Oh, that's bad.
Researcher: Don't get me started on the Samoas.
Girl Scout: Can I go home now?