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Graphene: Fast, Strong, Cheap, and Impossible To Use

Posted by Soulskill on from the but-my-space-elevator dept.

An anonymous reader writes: We keep hearing about the revolutionary properties of graphene, an atom-thick sheet of carbon whose physical characteristics hold a great deal of promise — if we can figure out good ways to produce it and use it. The New Yorker has a lengthy profile of graphene and its discoverer, Andre Geim, as well as one of the physicists leading a big chunk of the bleeding-edge graphene research, James Tour.

Quoting: "[S]cientists are still trying to devise a cost-effective way to produce graphene at scale. Companies like Samsung use a method pioneered at the University of Texas, in which they heat copper foil to eighteen hundred degrees Fahrenheit in a low vacuum, and introduce methane gas, which causes graphene to "grow" as an atom-thick sheet on both sides of the copper—much as frost crystals "grow" on a windowpane. They then use acids to etch away the copper. The resulting graphene is invisible to the naked eye and too fragile to touch with anything but instruments designed for microelectronics. The process is slow, exacting, and too expensive for all but the largest companies to afford. ... Nearly every scientist I spoke with suggested that graphene lends itself especially well to hype."

4 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Mass production ? by SteveAstro · · Score: 5, Informative

    And yet, I read about a team in Cambridge in the UK who have a new low temperature process that can create graphene in industrial quantities.

    http://cambridgenanosystems.co...

    1. Re:Mass production ? by Headw1nd · · Score: 4, Informative

      The article actually seemed well researched, and involved interviewing or questioning at least a dozen people in the field. I'm pretty sure they used google somewhere in the process. I realize it's hip to bash reported for lack of thoroughness, but your comment seems out of place, as the New Yorker is not usually one to skimp on research.

    2. Re:Mass production ? by reverseengineer · · Score: 3, Informative

      Mass production- of graphene powder. Cambridge Nanosystems' process makes flakes of graphene in the 200-800 nm diameter range; cf. this interview with their chief scientist. It's still a valuable material with many potential uses; that interview talks about composite materials and conductive inks. However, it's a very different product with different applications from a large-scale monolayer sheet.

      --
      "FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
    3. Re:Mass production ? by smallfries · · Score: 4, Informative

      Somebody with a Nobel Prize would disagree with you.

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