Polymer-Based Graphene Substitute Is Easy To Mass-Produce

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Polymer-Based Graphene Substitute Is Easy To Mass-Produce

Posted by Soulskill on Friday July 4, 2014 @04:10AM from the set-off-some-graphene-fireworks-to-celebrate dept.

Zothecula writes: For all the attention graphene gets thanks to its impressive list of properties, how many of us have actually encountered it in anything other than its raw graphite form? Show of hands. No-one? That's because it is still difficult to mass-produce without introducing defects. Now a team at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology has developed a graphene substitute from plastic that offers the benefits of graphene for use in solar cells and semiconductor chips, but is easy to mass-produce (abstract).

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substitute? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-04 04:18 · Score: 0

That implies graphene is presently used for anything... It's just vaporware.
1. Re:substitute? by rubycodez · 2014-07-04 04:26 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  graphene has been used for over a century, stacked and bonded in pencils
2. Re:substitute? by mark-t · 2014-07-04 04:30 · Score: 2
  
  That would be graphITE
  
  --
  File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
3. Re:substitute? by tomxor · 2014-07-04 04:33 · Score: 1
  
  beat me to it :P
4. Re:substitute? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-04 04:46 · Score: 1
  
  Whoosh.
  Wiki:
  
  Crystalline flake graphite (or flake graphite for short) occurs as isolated, flat, plate-like particles with hexagonal edges if unbroken and when broken the edges can be irregular or angular;
  
  stacked and bonded
  Wiki:
  
  In graphene, carbon atoms are densely packed in a regular sp2-bonded atomic-scale chicken wire (hexagonal) pattern.
5. Re:substitute? by mark-t · 2014-07-04 05:03 · Score: 1
  
  But the stuff in pencils still ins't graphene.
  
  --
  File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
6. Re:substitute? by rubycodez · 2014-07-04 07:06 · Score: 1
  
  which is graphene bonded and stacked
7. Re:substitute? by rubycodez · 2014-07-04 07:06 · Score: 1
  
  yes it is, it is graphene bonded and stacked, look it up. that is the reason pencils can write, by the way
8. Re:substitute? by rubycodez · 2014-07-04 07:07 · Score: 2
  
  and you would have been wrong. graphite is nothing more than stacked and bonded graphene sheets
9. Re:substitute? by rubycodez · 2014-07-04 07:13 · Score: 1
  
  That's rich coming from an AC who can't form a complete sentence.
10. Re:substitute? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-04 09:45 · Score: 0
  
  no its not, look it up and use your head!
  If its 'stacked and bonded' that does not make it a single layer. Graphene *by definition* is a 2D sheet of carbon atoms, the stuff in pencils is a 3D matrix of carbon atoms. In no way,shape or form does 3D equal 2D.
  Please, stop posting drivel when you are so very much wrong.
11. Re:substitute? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-04 14:55 · Score: 0
  
  You're an idiot.
  How to make graphene with a pencil and tape
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
12. Re:substitute? by Zerth · 2014-07-04 15:02 · Score: 1
  
  Considering the 2010 Nobel prize in physics was won by a pair who made grapheme by simply cleaving graphite with tape, I'd say you really need to use your head.
  http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-...
13. Re: substitute? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-04 17:52 · Score: 0
  
  How could it be a 2D sheet by definition? Last time I checked it had at least 1 atom depth! Which make it 3D.
14. Re:substitute? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-04 21:37 · Score: 0
  
  Not to agree with any of ye, but 2D does equal 3D.. if "stacked". Where the 3rd "D" is the direction of stacking. Don't be a fool.
What could be easier than pencils and Scotch tape? by drwho · 2014-07-04 04:35 · Score: 1

I mean, really...
Re:What could be easier than pencils and Scotch ta by mark-t · 2014-07-04 04:43 · Score: 1

While cheap and easy, that's not overly suited for mass production.

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File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Cheaper Solar Cells ! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-04 05:01 · Score: 0

Yeah !!!!
Sorry if you live in Florida...
1. Re:Cheaper Solar Cells ! by GameboyRMH · 2014-07-04 05:21 · Score: 1
  
  Patent to be purchased by fossil fuel company in 3,2,1...
  
  --
  "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Re:What could be easier than pencils and Scotch ta by Em+Adespoton · 2014-07-04 05:09 · Score: 1

While cheap and easy, that's not overly suited for mass production.
I'm sure 3M could work something out....
Ahem by war4peace · 2014-07-04 05:49 · Score: 1

Let me know when it's mass-produced.

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...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
So what exactly are the properties? by Baldrson · 2014-07-04 06:07 · Score: 1

They don't say it has _all_ the properties of defect-free graphene -- so, what properties are mismatched? Just the important ones?

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Seastead this.
1. Re:So what exactly are the properties? by Blaskowicz · 2014-07-04 06:24 · Score: 1
  
  Yes. I hyped myself about capacitors good enough to replace batteries, and graphene is good for that use. No idea if the substitute is any useful there.
I have used some by penguinoid · 2014-07-04 06:33 · Score: 1, Redundant

I regularly use graphene stacked in several layers so that the layers can slide off each other, with a little clay mixed in for harness. I use it to produce flexible, resilient optical communications devices that can be folded like paper, with a longer lifetime than most magnetic or charge-based storage devices.

--
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
1. Re:I have used some by rubycodez · 2014-07-04 07:10 · Score: 1
  
  they should come up with a cool name for your marvelous device, like a pensyllabuscil
Confusing article by marciot · 2014-07-04 06:35 · Score: 3, Informative

Is the end result graphene, a lattice of carbon atoms, or not? What exactly is a "substitute carbon nanosheet" if not graphene itself? Is the process new or the material new? This article is like saying you developed an easier process for creating wood-pulp-based white laminar sheets that are flexible and suitable for writing letters and calling it a "paper substitute", without clearly saying why it isn't paper.
1. Re:Confusing article by radtea · 2014-07-04 07:00 · Score: 2
  
  What exactly is a "substitute carbon nanosheet"
  Reading between the lines, it looks like it is a thin layer of mixed carbon and hydrogen with a structure that they have not yet properly characterized but which they have shown has the properties required for transparent electrodes in solar cells.
  Specifically, they say the properties of the layer can be controlled by the properties of the polymer they start with, which suggests that it partakes in the polymer's nature, which would mean it is more than just a single layer of carbon atoms.
  They may be being cautious and simply saying it is "graphene-like-enough" for this application, but having not fully characterized it may not want to claim it is "truly" graphene, which is a fairly vague term for a variety of single-sheet carbon materials that may have a variety of defects, in just the same was as "paper" is also fairly vague (from tissue to construction.)
  
  --
  Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
2. Re:Confusing article by rubycodez · 2014-07-04 07:11 · Score: 1
  
  if bonded there is a name for mixed carbon and hydrogen in a mostly carbon matrix, coal
3. Re:Confusing article by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-04 19:54 · Score: 0
  
  My thoughts pretty much exactly. Claiming that whatever they've produced has "properties similar to graphine" leaves a lot of wiggle room. Sounds a little like KST's PR department has decided the institution needs a little air time.
4. Re:Confusing article by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-05 07:15 · Score: 0
  
  The abstract says that the CNS is made of a mixture of aromatic hydrocarbons and cycloalkenes that have been spin coated on a quartz substrate then heat treated.
5. Re:Confusing article by Ungrounded+Lightning · 2014-07-05 10:05 · Score: 1
  
  Is the end result graphene, a lattice of carbon atoms, or not? What exactly is a "substitute carbon nanosheet" if not graphene itself?
  It sounds to me like they're hedging because they haven't fully characterized what they get.
  As I undetstand it, producing carbon fiber from plastic consists of stretching a plastic (such as rayon - a string of carbon hexagons joined by oxygen links, or polyacriolnitrile - a carbon backbone with a C2N group hanging off every other carbon) so the long-chains are alligned, then baking off the other elements (hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen). This leaves just the carbon backbones (with additional carbon-carbon bonds from the loss of the hydrogen and whatever. Result: long, narrow, straight or crumpled ribbons of graphite-like hexagons, in a bundle, perhaps with occasional crosslinks, side-bumps, and other debris.
  So I'd think that, if they did this on a surface, with something that didn't polmerize in two dimensions, they wouldn't end up with the nice, clean, carbon chicken-wire fence of graphine. Instead they'd end up with little graphine patches and strips, interconnected irregularly, and not restricted to an atom-thick plane.
  But I'd expect the result to, like graphene, conduct well and be very strong. Just not as strong and conductive as a perfect graphene layer, perhaps with some odd electrical activity from the deviations from the regular structure acting as "impurities', and higher resistance due to shorter mean free paths for charge carriers as they bump into these irregularities.
  
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  Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Re:What could be easier than pencils and Scotch ta by peragrin · 2014-07-04 09:32 · Score: 1

I have worked with 3M on custom adhesive tapes . I have doubts about that some days.

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i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
This was on Gizmag yesterday... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-04 10:43 · Score: 0

... like many of Slashdot's articles...
Yaritza M by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-04 13:36 · Score: 0

I prefer Led Lampen to those
Slashdot is not generally a primary source. by Ungrounded+Lightning · 2014-07-05 10:17 · Score: 1

This was on Gizmag yesterday... like many of Slashdot's articles...
Give it a rest.
Slashdot is not an investigative journal or a follower-and-repeater of press releases. It's a bunch of nerds pointing out interesting stuff to each other, and talking it over, with a few nerds vetting the postings before they go up on the "front page".
That means, like Wikipedia, it's not generally a primary source. It also means that, for real news items, it is generally about a day behind.
If you want news in a timely fashion, go read Gizmag and a bunch of other acutal reportage sites. If you're willing to wait a little bit and then talk it over with a crowd of acquaintences (some of whom might actually know more about it than the newsies), this is the place for you.

--
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way