GRAPHENE OUTLOOK

by Tim Grady

What Object Has Length, Width, and No Thickness?

Hint: 25 Have Been Identified and One is Booming

About 20 years ago, Professor Andre Geim and Professor Konstantin Novoselov at the University of Manchester in the UK were experimenting with pencil on paper.

They weren’t trying to draw pretty pictures. They were trying to isolate a material made of a single layer of carbon atoms by rubbing the pencil lead on the paper and then applying, removing, and discarding tape, hoping that the last thing on the paper would be the thinnest object ever created.

The elusive material didn’t appear. But one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and when they examined the discarded tape, they found what they were looking for: carbon atoms in a hexagonal lattice a million times thinner than a human hair – now known as graphene. Graphene is lightweight, flexible, and 200 times continued stronger than steel. It conducts electricity faster than most existing materials. Defect-free graphene is impermeable to all gases and liquids, but other states or chemical combinations can make it porous.

From Concept to Commercial Use

Since its discovery, universities, governments, and major corporations are pouring money into graphene research and development. The challenge is producing graphene at scale in sizes useful in the real world. Electronics, energy storage, sensors, coatings, composites, food processing, sports, defense, medical, and biomedical devices hold the potential to incorporate graphene. Advanced material supplier Nanografi, with commercial offices in Estonia and Germany, has identified more than 60 commercial uses of graphene in various combinations with other elements. The following are some of the fascinating developments.

Solar Cells

The goal of a solar cell is to convert sunlight into electricity. Most solar panes today are large, heavy, and rigid panels. The “What if” scenario would be a thin, lightweight, flexible, and more efficient way to collect and convert energy. Graphene has no relative thickness, is flexible, is 98% transparent, and can be purchased in 30cm x 30cm sheets (with larger sheets in development). It has potential commercial use on the surface of electric cars to charge them, clothes (wearable electronics), cell phones (for screens, internal electronics, and charging), and window panes as a thin layer like window tint or between layers of glass, both to convert sunlight to electricity. High-rise buildings with myriad window panes may become collection towers to power the entire building and return energy to the grid. Homes may become selfpowered on sunny days. Graphene- enhanced Li-ion batteries show potential for a longer lifespan, higher capacity, and faster charging time, so buildings, cars, and homes may also be able to store electricity for cloudy days and reduce dependence on the grid, or return (sell) power back to it.

The size and efficiency of graphene, in combination with other materials, are being examined for increased energy capture and storage. Rapid advances in graphene can potentially disrupt investments in other forms of energy generation and capture, such as burning fossil fuels, wind turbines, nuclear, and even wave or tidal.

Medicine

Graphene is being experimented with in the treatment of cancer. It can detect cancer cells in the early stages of tumor formation and cause autophagy, leading to cancer cell death. Functionalized graphene can carry chemotherapy drugs to tumors, targeting cancer cells better and reducing or decreasing the toxicity of chemotherapy drugs that adversely affect healthy cells. Drug delivery is not limited to cancer treatment. Anti-inflammatory drugs have also been carried by graphene and chitosan combinations to yield promising results for chronic pain patients.

For people with diabetes, graphene sensor patches have been developed to detect blood sugar levels without breaking the skin to measure glucose levels. The patch detects the glucose by pulling it from the fluid between the cells using a hair follicle. It is expected to increase the accuracy of results and eliminate the painful methods of blood sugar monitoring.

For dialysis patients, graphene, combined with other materials to create a permeable state, can filter wastes, drugs, and chemicals from the blood. Since it is 20 times thinner than existing membranes, it will significantly decrease the time spent in dialysis by speeding blood flow through the filter.

Graphene, in combination with other chemical structures, is beneficial in regeneration of bone and dental tissues. It may also be useful for other tissue generation, such as growing cells on a lattice structure of the human heart, because it is flexible, impermeable, and electrically conductive. Tissue reengineering to improve the lives of people with neuronal disorders or neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, and other diseases that affect body activities, including balance, movement, talking, breathing, or heart function is being explored. Because it can be useful at very small sizes, graphene has the potential to create computerbrain interfaces that could control prosthetic limbs.

Graphene is beginning to show incredible diagnotic results as ultrasensitive biosensors that can detect viral infections, most notably HIV at levels 100,000 times lower than current diagnotic approaches and as soon as one week after becoming infected. Graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide are bactericidal and avoid the generation of bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Combining it with silver nanoparticles increases antibacterial properties. In combination with other materials, graphene can detect T-waves (THZ radiation) which will lead to safer body scans since T-waves, unlike X-rays, are harmless to the body.

Military Applications

Graphene is 200 times stronger than steel and better able to withstand the impact of a bullet than either steel or Kevlar, with only a few layers of the material thinner than a human hair. It will also reduce the weight of protective gear. Combined with other materials, it can create flexible, transparent, and low-cost UV sensors that will lead to wearable electronics.

Graphene supertransitors replace silicon with graphene to increase computer speed up to one thousand times current technology. Speed of data applications will impact military applications including robotics, weapon maneuvers, and simulations. Graphene can improve the waterproof needs of field devices and wearable electronics. It is also more touch-sensitive and transparent for smartphone, tablet, and computer screens. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory has found a way for graphene to become a more reliable and controllable electromagnetic material for hard drives and computer memory that is expected to increase capacity by almost one million times. It also has significant waterproof capabilities.

Because of its lightweight, flexibility, and transparency, graphene can be used for bulletproof military clothing, helmets, and even face shields. Impact energy diffusion will be the key to effectiveness in this arena.

So Much More…

Manufacturing Outlook will continue to report on graphene in future issues, covering sportswear, clothing, snake robots, sensors, use in food processing and packaging, water purification and desalination, crop protection, food security, health and fitness monitoring, rust-free surfaces, lubricants, and other applications. Tim Grady is Editor-in-Chief of Manufacturing Outlook and a host on Manufacturing Talk Radio. He can be reached at timgrady@ mfgtalkradio.com. n

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