Futurist Foresight
Graphene arerogels for insulation.
Graphene Aerogel
— Lightest Solid Material Ever DevelopedBecause aerogels are porous they are ultra-light materials and this one is 100 times lighter than Polystyrene foam cups and can help clean up pollutants like toluene and crude oil (other oils as well) and other compounds like ethanol. Researchers are planning to look at the materials ability for insulating and sound proofing in the future.
Previous records for lightest materials were 0.9 milligrams per cubic centimeter in 2011, 0.18 mg/cm3 in 2012, and now this material at 0.16 mg/cm3.
Prof. Gao Chao // Polymer Science Engineering at Zhejiang University
Published Feb 18, 2013 // Advanced Materials
(via iomproraeolais)
Graphene: A nanomaterial that continues to amaze with its endless applications.
Kostya Novoselov has the tour down pat. After a friendly introduction, visitors are whisked to a clean room so that they can repeat the experiment that helped to win him a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. The important bit can be done in seconds: press some sticky tape onto a chunk of graphite, then press it again onto an ultraclean silicon wafer. Peel it off, and some of the silver flakes dotting the wafer’s surface are atom-thick sheets of honeycombed carbon known as graphene.
What can´t it do?
Graphene, an ordered monolayer of carbon, is the thinnest substance known, and yet has extraordinary mechanical strength. A new study shows that its two-dimensional network of atoms can even trap light.
Graphene, a monolayer of carbon in which the atoms are arranged in a two-dimensional honeycomb…
![What can´t Graphene do?
futurescope:
Graphene used to rust-proof steel
via gizmag
Hexavalent chromium compounds are a key ingredient in coatings used to rust-proof steel. They also happen to be carcinogenic. Researchers, therefore, have been looking for non-toxic alternatives that could be used to keep steel items from corroding. Recently, scientists from the University at Buffalo announced that they have developed such a substance. It’s a varnish that incorporates graphene, the one-atom-thick carbon sheeting material that is the thinnest and strongest substance known to exist. […]
[read more] [University of Buffalo]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4txoxybvD1r08k60o1_500.jpg)
What can´t Graphene do?
Graphene used to rust-proof steel
via gizmag
Hexavalent chromium compounds are a key ingredient in coatings used to rust-proof steel. They also happen to be carcinogenic. Researchers, therefore, have been looking for non-toxic alternatives that could be used to keep steel items from corroding. Recently, scientists from the University at Buffalo announced that they have developed such a substance. It’s a varnish that incorporates graphene, the one-atom-thick carbon sheeting material that is the thinnest and strongest substance known to exist. […]
(via futurescope)
Polarized optical microscopy reveals beautiful patterns in graphene oxide liquid crystals (scale bar = 100 μm).
(CHAO GAO)
Nano-sized flakes of graphene oxide can be spun into graphene fibres several metres long, researchers in China have shown. The strong, flexible fibres, which can be tied in knots or woven into conductive mats, could be the key to deploying graphene in real-world devices such as flexible batteries and solar cells1.
When it comes to physical properties, graphene is remarkably well-rounded. This two-dimensional mesh of carbon atoms has the highest mechanical strength ever recorded, and also breaks records for its thermal and electrical conductivity. But harnessing graphene’s properties requires finding a way to turn these tiny 800-nanometre-wide flakes of carbon into macro-scale materials.
Zhen Xu and Chao Gao at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, have achieved just that. They have used an industrial process called wet spinning to turn an aqueous solution of graphene oxide — a modified form of graphene that is easier to dissolve — into fibres that are tens of metres long. A final chemical reduction treatment turns the long strings of graphene oxide back into graphene.
Nanotechnology as a discipline is bleeding-edge cool, but so often we hear more about its amazing potential than its practical application. So it’s always refreshing to catch wind of a story like this: Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York have developed and demonstrated a small, relatively inexpensive, and reusable sensor made of graphene foam that far outperforms commercial gas sensors on the market today and could lead to better explosives detectors and environmental sensors in the very near future.
The new sensor dispenses with a lot of the limitations that have been holding back sensors in this space. In the last several years, many strides have been made in the science of manipulating nanostructures to be excellent detectors of very fine trace elements of chemicals on the air. But these sensors, while great in theory, are impractical in actual service.
(via emergentfutures)
First Demonstration of Inkjet-Printed Graphene Electronics | Technology Review
The ‘wonder material’ of modern science now promises all-printed, flexible and transparent graphene devices on more or less any surface.
