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Graphene Spun Into Meter-Long Fibers
ananyo writes "Nano-sized flakes of graphene oxide can be spun into graphene fibers several meters long, researchers in China have shown. The strong, flexible fibers, which can be tied in knots or woven into conductive mats, could be the key to deploying graphene in real-world devices such as flexible batteries."
Sorry, but that's the first thing I think of when a new super material is described.
I can't think of any other technology that, barring a really huge breakthrough (like anti-gravity) would truly make space travel a practical reality for millions. Even Arthur C. Clarke in his "Fountains of Paradise" book alluded to this saying that the supposedly hyper-efficient rockets of the future would create so much environmental damage (pollution, sonic booms) that really heavy traffic couldn't be sustained.
Maybe if we had cold fusion (or something like it like muon catalyzed fusion or zero-point energy) space travel on a large scale would be practical but these "breakthroughs" might be just as far (or impossibly far!) away.
By the way, did anyone see the developments (at MIT?) where they showed a nano structured "tape" able to support the weight of a full grown man with only a few inches of surface area? And it was able to be re-used thousands of times before using its grip? Perhaps the space elevator could be made of material structured this way, I mean if that thing is ever going to be built it will essentially be a gigantic 23,000 mile long SINGLE MOLECULE anyway so nano structuring should be almost trivial!
not yet. I RTFA.
There are mechanical defects in the graphene strand that make it weaker than traditional carbon fiber.
They are going to need to be able to generate nearly perfect strands before that becomes an option.
To me, this suggests a couple more interesting applications:
Battery electrode
Supercapacitor dielectric
Chemical sensor
Nanofiltration
Lightweight structural blocks/foams (this is essentially a spun aerogel with a water solvent...)
Carbon wire (copper is expensive)
I am sure there are others.
No, it's a graphene fiber, not an ass-fiber. Didn't you even read the summary?
>High cost
FTFA
"Carbon fibre is made by a high-temperature treatment. Our fibres are made just by spinning a water-based solution â" it is quite green and quite easy," says Gao.
Easy means cheap. And that's what's really ground-breaking about this.
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BMO
Whenever I see "space elevator!" Mentioned, this course of action plays out in my head:
A space elevator/orbital tether needs to be at the rotational equator. This means central or south america, or africa. (Islands would lack the strong continental plate foundations to hold the tether to the earth.)
The tether itself will be many kilometers long. It has to extend all the way, vertically, into low earth orbit.
The tether, if made of a conductive material like graphene, would become super charged with high voltages just from the air currents whorling around it. (Don't believe me, run a kite on copper wire and attach a volt meter between it and the ground. Remember that the kite string is orders of magnitude shorter than an orbital tether.) In addition to this constant charging, you have the high energy disturbances of the ionosphere to deal with. I suppose this could make the tether into a fantastic dc powerplant, but it would also make putting a carriage on the tether much more difficult.
Then you have the political problems.... look at the shit that happens with selecting where to hold the olypic games. Imagine the politics involved in breaking soil on an orbital tether.
And then, finally, what happens if there is an accident? Many kilometers of highly energized, and kinetically taught razorwire with toughness surpassing all other construction materials whipping round the planet sounds pretty dangerous to me.
Really, the logistics of such a project just don't make for a plausible project, barring some kind of officious one world government that doesn't brook dissent.
My ass-fibers are graphene, you insensitive clod!
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
And then, finally, what happens if there is an accident? Many kilometers of highly energized, and kinetically taught razorwire with toughness surpassing all other construction materials whipping round the planet sounds pretty dangerous to me.
I don't have the link handy, but someone actually did the math on this. Due to the mass vs. surface area (and how much energy will be lost to air resistance), the cord will land softly along the surface of the earth from the anchor to the breakpoint. The greater danger will be had by the station at the top of the cord, but there are ways to stabilize the rotation it would suffer.
If we only had to go to LEO, we'd probably have done it already.
Also, there are a ton of satellites in LEO, and most of them are likely to hit the tether at some point. It is just a matter of time (and not as much time as you'd think -- you'd probably have a near miss every couple weeks).
I RTFA. It actually mentions that the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology where this was done is actually in, who would have guessed it, South Korea! and not China.
It's pretty easy to snort coke laced with platinum from a diamod encrusted hooker's ass.. but it ain't cheap, let me tell you
which is totally what she said
Relevant xkcd: http://www.xkcd.com/37/
I expect the effect of graphene on the human body to be similar to asbestos. So expect increased cancer rates, Asbestosis, and other health problems from people who work with it as a raw material.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Can you please explain to me what the hell a butt hurt-troll is?
Graphene oxide and graphene are two different materials. As different as iron and rust, particularly in electrical properties.
This deliberate misleading of people outside the field by nanotechnology researchers is a major problem and has been for several years.
Three times? No. By pure coincidence, geostationary orbit is just under one circumference, 89% of one to be exact. In a worst case scenario, that 22kmi comes crashing down, and doesn't quite wrap around the world once, while the counterweight gets flung out into space. You could actually cut the cable somewhere around 15kmi, and the remainder would be going fast enough to remain in orbit. Send some robot to spool it up to reduce the navigation hazard, and then collect it later. By necessity, such a thing would be placed on the equator, so between South America (Equador, Columbia, Northern Brazil), Sub-Saharan Africa, and Indonesia, pick two out of three to hit. You could place scuttling charges on that section of cable every couple miles, such that the cable harmlessly falls down much as long party streamers. The worst damage it would cause would be shorting out any electrical lines it managed to cross.
Wait, I just told you the guys writing about graphene oxide are misleading you, and your response is that I should read their article? Think about that for a minute.
I am a graphene researcher. I've published my own papers on these materials. I've done my own measurements. The resistance, carrier mobility, noise power and chemical reactivity of reduced graphene oxide is not the same as graphene. That's what their data says too, the press release text from Nature doesn't matter.