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Possible Graphene Alternative Made From Hemp Waste

MTorrice writes "A low-cost chemical process can turn hemp fiber into carbon nanomaterials. Researchers used the materials to make devices called supercapacitors that provide quick bursts of electrical energy. Supercapacitors made with the hemp nanosheets put out more power than commercial devices can." According to one of the authors, "Hemp bast is a nanocomposite made up of layers of lignin, hemicellulose, and crystalline cellulose ... If you process it the right way, it separates into nanosheets similar to graphene." Perhaps the process could be applied to related plants (hops?) too.

16 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Great! by nospam007 · · Score: 4, Funny

    My ashtray is full of carbon nanomaterials stemming from hemp products.

    Am I rich now?

    1. Re:Great! by WillgasM · · Score: 4, Funny

      I've already patented the process you're alluding to.

    2. Re:Great! by GameboyRMH · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, your tech is all vaporware.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  2. interesting stuff, but misleading by geoskd · · Score: 5, Informative

    They did in fact create a system that puts out more instantaneous energy per unit weight, but that is not the improvement that super capacitors need. They have improved gravimetric power density. The two measures that need improvement to make super capacitors more useful are gravimetric energy density (how much energy can it store in a given weight), and volumetric energy density. How much energy can it store in a given volume. Without significant improvements in those two areas, super capacitors cannot make significant inroads against batteries.

    It should also be noted that super capacitors already have better power density than chemical batteries by a wide margin, and are more than sufficient to replace I.C. engines and gasoline in that respect.

    --
    I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
  3. Re:Marijuana? by pspahn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Indeed, it's the same plant in the same way that a Yorkshire Terrier is the same animal as a Golden Retriever. Only through selective breeding did they reduce the THC concentrations low enough that the plants couldn't be practically used for psychoactive contents.

    --
    Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
  4. Re:Marijuana? by WillgasM · · Score: 4, Funny

    And when you make them into hot dogs, they all taste relatively the same.

  5. Re:Marijuana? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    They're the same plant. Hemp (both industrial and medicinal strains) were banned because:
    a) there was hysteria over growing opium addiction, and the confusion about hashish (which was, at the time, a foreign and relatively unknown substance) lead some people to believe it was a form of opium
    b) it threatened the massive paper and fibre industries
    c) the 'top' media entrepreneurs at the time had investments in (b) and used their media empires to stoke the fear surrounding (a) to see hemp banned in the US alongside opium; then other countries followed because of the pressure put upon them by the US government

    A classic story of capital triumphing over Good Things.

  6. Re:Marijuana? by pspahn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Entire? Not quite. It's been discussed here plenty for you to already know that there are states that have enacted legalization.

    Colorado even just recently approved the regulatory structure for stores selling pot products.

    You may certainly continue to believe what you want to believe, it's just fictional.

    --
    Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
  7. Re:Pot solves everything by KGIII · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Pot. Is there anything it can't do? /might be a little high right now actually

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  8. Re:always amusing by kimvette · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Agreed.

    As a Christian I am constantly appalled by idiots who cherry-pick verses out of context to support their prejudices. I don't think having a good time at a party (or at the wedding you referred to) is equivalent to being a drunkard. People who take verses to support their own biases, ignoring the context and what is actually being said make all Christians look bad.

    --
    The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
  9. Re:Ugh, potheads by WillgasM · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hemp's illegal because weed's illegal. But why's weed illegal; because someone long ago wanted to make hemp illegal. They had controlling share of an opposing market and wanted to eliminate the competition. Here we are decades later wishing to make hemp legal again, but we can't because apparently people still believe jazz musicians are trying to corrupt our white women. Forget the hempen trojan horse; I don't want pot legalized on a technicality. By default, pot should be legal unless someone can give me a valid reason to ban it. The reason it's illegal today is the same root reason it was banned in the first place: there's a powerful industry that makes money from pot being illegal. The paper/textile industries agenda has been replaced (and dwarfed) by our private prison system. "because we'll lose money" is not a good reason to impose regulation. I shouldn't have to defend pot because I've yet to see a valid attack.

  10. The 1% wants to keep you down, man! by tekrat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So since William Randolph Hearst demonized Hemp and forever tied to to Pot, it's been illegal to grow in the USA. You do realize that in most of the free world, you can walk into a grocery store and still buy products made from Coca leaf?

    And yet in the "land of the free" almost everything is banned. Except guns. And you need those in case the government "takes away your rights". I hope you see the tremendous irony there.

    --
    If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
  11. Re:Pot solves everything by isorox · · Score: 5, Funny

    Pot. Is there anything it can't do? /might be a little high right now actually

    It can't call the kettle black.

  12. Re:Marijuana? by ganjadude · · Score: 4, Informative

    You kind of glossed over the big issue (B). The issue was Dupont.(concerning hemp not marihuana) Dupont had just created the synthetic fibre. Dupont did not want competition. The same can be said for hurst and his wood pulp making venture. The fact that you can make as much paper on 1 acre of land with hemp yearly as it would take 30 acres of land a cycle of 20 years to produce the same amount of paper.

    This is the big reason it was banned. Now they also used the "black will rape white women" and "lazy mexicans smoke pot" as an excuse in the media (re: reefer madness for a good laugh. It is a funny movie minus the fact that they actually believed it to be true when made)

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  13. Re:Pot solves everything by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 4, Funny

    Tech epicenter moves from Santa Clara to Humboldt county.

    "Dude! Where's the check for our startup money. The guy from ImpossibleVentures was here, and I KNOW I put the cheque SOMEWHERE!"

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  14. Re:Pot solves everything by kilfarsnar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Legalizing marijuana and hemp would actually solve a lot of problems though. As you say we could stop locking all these people up for a mostly harmless activity. But it would also open up hemp as an industrial resource. As I'm sure you know hemp is useful for all kinds of stuff from textiles to paper to seed oil and meal. It grows fast and has little need for pesticides. But we can't grow it domestically because of our stupid prohibition.

    --
    "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)