Ever heard of ghraphene? If not brace yourself! You are about to discover about the material which will most likely change the future of humanity. We will briefly introduce this material which is making its way into market due to its amazing applications in the tech and science field.
Let’s have a look at the features of graphene!
The unexpected discovery
First discovered in 2004 by accident by two Russian scientists working in Manchester Andrej Gejm, and his pupil Konstantin Novosëlov, graphene holds great promises.
They were trying to compare the properties of thin and flat layers of graphite with those of carbon nanotubes, already long known. To thin more and more of the graphite flakes, Gejm and Novosëlov tried to use tape, a very simple yet effective method.
The two scientists obtained a thin layer of one atom of carbon whose implications are unbelievable, granting them the Nobel Prize of Physics in 2010.
Ever since it was announced the world is trying to further study this material.
Here are some features that you won’t believe are real.
Graphene’s “fiction-like” features
First of all, is its hundreds times more resistent than steel, and as if this weren’t amazing enough it is even lighter. Research indicates that a stack of 3 million sheets of graphene would have a thickness of 1 mm. It is an elastic and flexible material, but extremely strong, hundreds of times stronger than steel. It is an excellent conductor of electricity and has a melting point above 3000 ° C.
Secondly, as already mentioned, it happens to be a super conductor of electricity, but how?
In a single sheet of graphene, the movement of electrons is practically bidimensional. Thus electrons are forced to travel through the graphene lattice and this periodic structure influences their behavior, to the point that electrons traveling in graphene become equivalent to massless neutrino-like, but electrically charged particles.
As Andrej Gejm himself puts it: “Studying quantum electrodynamics in the laboratory and at room temperature is like having Cern on your desk ” and no wonder he says that, the unique behavior of electrons in graphene immediately made it possible to observe interesting quantum phenomena, at room temperature and in samples produced simply by using adhesive tape.
The incredible massive cut-off of costs for such experiments leave the scientific world speechless, not to mention the other proprieties, for example: good conductor of heat, mechanically stable and waterproof to gas and water.
Companies all around the world are trying to find implications for this amazing material and are funding further research.
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