Graphene — “The Miracle Material”

The Begining…

Let’s go a little back in time. It's 2004, the year I was born. I was probably doing some boring, non-exciting thing (sleeping probably), that had no significance to the world at all. However in the world of science, boring and insignificant were far, far away from true.

After 145 years of the first attempts to study it, the mysterious nanomaterial known as graphene was finally isolated. This discovery led to an explosion of hype around the whole topic, with the media teeming with speculations, scientists talking about the different ways it can be used and change our lives forever. Promises like bulletproof vests (this is different from bullet-resistant!), faster than ever computers, electric airplanes, and unbreakable screens and windows.

What they were talking was essentially a graphene revolution — like the stone revolution, the iron revolution, the plastic revolution; and now a graphene revolution.

Fast forward 15 years, where is all of that gone? The promises remain that — promises that are waiting to become reality. No one even knows what it is and it is still not used in daily life. Wait but graphene should be in literally everything because of the amazing properties and utilizations, right? Basically what I’m trying to say is that maybe what was once dubbed the “Miracle Material” wasn’t such a miracle after all…

What is Graphene?

Before we can figure out why graphene wasn’t commercialized, we need to obviously know what it is! Graphene is just a form of graphite — the same abundant material you have at the tip of your pencil. The difference is that it has a height of only 1 ATOM! That’s right, it is one single layer of graphite. Being obviously at the nanoscale, it is greatly different from regular graphite, having many differences in the properties and uses — and these properties are the reasons that got scientists so excited about discovering graphene!

First of all, graphene is the most conductive, most thermally conductive, hardest, thinnest, strongest, and one of the most pliable material that exists on this planet. No big deal. It is about 200 times stronger than steel — ever stronger than diamond! It can conduct electrons almost as fast as the speed of light, faster than any known material.

Graphene was thought to be the material of the future, commercialized into almost every industry out there. It could make PV panels more efficient, faster computers, better and stronger cars, and much more! However, why didn’t all of this happen? Why is graphene’s only “popular” use in something as minor as tennis racquets?

Wasted Potential? Maybe not…

Is the reason graphene is not where it could have been just wasted potential? Were people just too lazy to make their products better and more efficient? I don't think so. The reason is simply a lack of research.

Let’s look at one of graphene’s biggest potential uses; in electronics. It is a lot faster at conducting electricity than silicon, which would make computers faster, so why has it not replaced silicon yet? The reason is simply… the conductivity is a bit too fast! Basically, graphene inherently lacks a bandgap, which is necessary to control the flow of electrons in the computer’s circuits.

Obviously, with all the brilliant minds out there, ways of engineering bandgaps into graphene were made. However, they are expensive and inefficient. In addition, graphene production is not perfect yet — since it is such a small nanomaterial, production is hard and can contain many fissures and flaws, making the overall process of mass production pretty inefficient.

And anyway, to completely change an industry and the materials used wouldn’t happen that fast. Baby steps have to be taken, which are being taken. Graphene is slowly being introduced into different industries, at a not so noticeable pace. Many companies out there are dedicated to graphene research on how it can be utilized in different ways to make products cheaper/better and to make the production of graphene as efficient as possible.

Current Uses of Graphene

As of now, graphene is being experimented with in many different companies and industries. The current implications being studied and close to production stages include new types of high-efficiency solar panels, better and more effective thermally conductive adhesive pastes for use in spaceships, high precision graphene origami, efficient disease and saltwater filtration, and the list goes on and on.

And these are only the things that are being looked into, research is still needed for so many different ways graphene could revolutionalize the manufacturing industry. The present might not be impressive, but the future of graphene is big.

But why should you care? Because it isn’t yet, but graphene will be a big part of our lives. There are so many uses of graphene that are not like the technical sciency uses above, rather things that you use in your daily, everyday life.

An example of this could be your car. The strength of graphene can be utilized in car doors and frames, by adding nanostructures to the existing materials for extra reinforcements and making the car stronger, more durable, and safer in case of an accident. It could also help create a new generation of cell phones. Faster, foldable, and transparent ones. Another example of daily life usage is anti-corrosion coatings and paint that is more effective and cheaper so that you won't have to deal with rust on your car, tools, etc. And these are just a few examples, you can find more reason why you should be excited about graphene research and commercialization here.

Key Takeaways

• As time goes by and graphene is a more viable option to use, its implications could be limitless
• Graphene is just an amazing discovery, that with the research and genius minds in this world, can make big impacts on how we incorporate nanotechnology into our daily lives and products
• There are many different uses of graphene in your daily lives, which could make your day safer, easier, more time-efficient etc., which is why YOU should care about it!

Hope you had fun reading my article and learned something new! Don’t forget to leave a couple of claps if you did 😉

If you have any questions, you can reach me @ruben2404@outlook.com