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Graphene Is The Strongest Material In The World Even When It Has Defects, Research Finds. Clean Power Published on June 2nd, 2013 | by James Ayre June 2nd, 2013 by James Ayre Graphene is the strongest material in the world, even when it has notable defects, new research has found.

Graphene Is The Strongest Material In The World Even When It Has Defects, Research Finds

Even when stitched together from numerous small crystalline grains, rather than being created directly in its perfect crystalline form, the material possesses its trademark and remarkable strength. New form of carbon said to be strongest material ever found. The strongest known material in the world may have just been dethroned.

New form of carbon said to be strongest material ever found

Researchers from Rice University have calculated the properties of a little-studied form of carbon known as carbyne, and they've determined that it should have a "specific strength surpassing that of any other known material. " That includes graphene — the longstanding titleholder for strongest material — which the researchers say is only half as stiff as carbyne. Carbyne and graphene are actually alike in several ways: both come from carbon, and both are only a single atom thick. Carbyne has previously been detected in interstellar dust and meteorites.

And obtaining it on Earth hasn't been easy: researchers have figured out how to chemically synthesize it, but only recently have they been able to create strands of the material that reach up to just 44 atoms long. How To Make Graphene. How do you manufacture huge amounts of graphene for a fraction of the cost? Printing presses. Graphene, a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms with amazing physical properties, could carry the digital world into an age beyond silicon.

How do you manufacture huge amounts of graphene for a fraction of the cost? Printing presses

But it might be helped along by a technique borrowed from something quite analog: the newspaper printing press. Earlier this month, the National Science Foundation awarded University of Pennsylvania graphene startup Graphene Frontiers $744,600 to develop technology that makes it faster and cheaper to produce graphene on a large scale. I recently caught up with CEO Michael Patterson who described how roll-to-roll manufacturing will enable graphene to make its entrance into the big industries. First inkjet-printed graphene computer circuit is transparent, flexible. You can add another crazy characteristic to graphene’s ever-expanding list of “wonder material” properties: It can now be used to create flexible, transparent thin-film transistors… using an inkjet printer.

First inkjet-printed graphene computer circuit is transparent, flexible

The discovery comes from researchers at the University of Cambridge, UK, who were trying to ameliorate the lackluster performance of existing inkjet-printed electronics. As we covered last month, it’s possible to print standard CMOS transistors using different ferroelectric polymer inks, but the resultant circuit is so slow that it can’t actually function as a computer. If graphene could replace or augment the interconnects or transistors, these circuits would be a lot faster — and that’s what these Cambridge engineers have done.

The actual meat of the discovery is that graphene has been successfully chipped off a block of graphite using a chemical solvent. These flakes are then filtered to remove any larger, print head-clogging chunks, and then turned into a polymer ink. Graphene Antennas Would Enable Terabit Wireless Downloads. Want to wirelessly upload hundreds of movies to a mobile device in a few seconds?

Graphene Antennas Would Enable Terabit Wireless Downloads

Researchers at Georgia Tech have drawn up blueprints for a wireless antenna made from atom-thin sheets of carbon, or graphene, that could allow terabit-per-second transfer speeds at short ranges. “It’s a gigantic volume of bandwidth. Nowadays, if you try to copy everything from one computer to another wirelessly, it takes hours. If you have this, you can do everything in one second—boom,” says Ian Akyildiz, director of the broadband wireless networking laboratory at Georgia Tech.

Nanowires grown on graphene have surprising structure. (Phys.org) —When a team of University of Illinois engineers set out to grow nanowires of a compound semiconductor on top of a sheet of graphene, they did not expect to discover a new paradigm of epitaxy.

Nanowires grown on graphene have surprising structure

The self-assembled wires have a core of one composition and an outer layer of another, a desired trait for many advanced electronics applications. Led by professor Xiuling Li, in collaboration with professors Eric Pop and Joseph Lyding, all professors of electrical and computer engineering, the team published its findings in the journal Nano Letters. Nanowires, tiny strings of semiconductor material, have great potential for applications in transistors, solar cells, lasers, sensors and more.

"Nanowires are really the major building blocks of future nano-devices," said postdoctoral researcher Parsian Mohseni, first author of the study. "Nanowires are components that can be used, based on what material you grow them out of, for any functional electronics application. " Graphene paint could power homes of the future. The Super Supercapacitor. Graphene supercapacitor breaks storage record. Researchers in the US have made a graphene-based supercapacitor that can store as much energy per unit mass as nickel metal hydride batteries – but unlike batteries, it can be charged or discharged in just minutes or even seconds.

Graphene supercapacitor breaks storage record

The new device has a specific energy density of 85.6 Wh/kg at room temperature and 136 Wh/kg at 80 °C. These are the highest ever values for "electric double layer" supercapacitors based on carbon nanomaterials. Supercapacitors, more accurately known as electric double-layer capacitors or electrochemical capacitors, can store much more charge than conventional capacitors. 'Soft' approach leads to revolutionary energy storage: Graphene-based supercapacitors.

Monash University researchers have brought next generation energy storage closer with an engineering first -- a graphene-based device that is compact, yet lasts as long as a conventional battery.

'Soft' approach leads to revolutionary energy storage: Graphene-based supercapacitors

Published today in Science, a research team led by Professor Dan Li of the Department of Materials Engineering has developed a completely new strategy to engineer graphene-based supercapacitors (SC), making them viable for widespread use in renewable energy storage, portable electronics and electric vehicles. SCs are generally made of highly porous carbon impregnated with a liquid electrolyte to transport the electrical charge. Known for their almost indefinite lifespan and the ability to re-charge in seconds, the drawback of existing SCs is their low energy-storage-to-volume ratio -- known as energy density. Low energy density of five to eight Watt-hours per litre, means SCs are unfeasibly large or must be re-charged frequently. A new technique to scale up production of graphene micro-supercapacitors (w/video) What is graphene? Here’s what you need to know about a material that could be the next silicon. Graphene, an emerging material that could change the way electronic components are made and help computing performance continue to grow, is everywhere in the research world these days.

What is graphene? Here’s what you need to know about a material that could be the next silicon

This month alone, advancements suggested it could boost internet speeds, serve as a touch sensitive coating and extend the lives of computers. It is stronger than diamond and conducts electricity and heat better than any material ever discovered, and it will likely play an important role in many products and processes in the future. Researchers make magnetic graphene. Graphene, a one-atom thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, has many desirable properties.

Researchers make magnetic graphene

Magnetism alas is not one of them. Magnetism can be induced in graphene by doping it with magnetic impurities, but this doping tends to disrupt graphene's electronic properties. Now a team of physicists at the University of California, Riverside has found an ingenious way to induce magnetism in graphene while also preserving graphene's electronic properties.

They have accomplished this by bringing a graphene sheet very close to a magnetic insulator -- an electrical insulator with magnetic properties. "This is the first time that graphene has been made magnetic this way," said Jing Shi, a professor of physics and astronomy, whose lab led the research. The finding has the potential to increase graphene's use in computers, as in computer chips that use electronic spin to store data. Study results appeared online earlier this month in Physical Review Letters. Graphene's love affair with water: Water filters allow precise and fast sieving of salts and organic molecules. Graphene has proven itself as a wonder material with a vast range of unique properties. Among the least-known marvels of graphene is its strange love affair with water. Graphene is hydrophobic -- it repels water -- but narrow capillaries made from graphene vigorously suck in water allowing its rapid permeation, if the water layer is only one atom thick -- that is, as thin as graphene itself.

This bizarre property has attracted intense academic and industrial interest with intent to develop new water filtration and desalination technologies.