SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Graphene: New Miracle Material


The strongest substance ever produced by man promises a revolution in computers, aeronautics, automobiles, and more. ::


BY JEREMY BATTERSBY I


magine ipads as thin as credit cards, cellphones you can roll up like paper, and


airplanes that don’t weigh much more than their passengers and fuel. These and many other stunning advances are possible in the near future because of a new material called graphene that is being hailed by research teams in the United States and around the world as the plastic of the 21st century.


Harder than


a diamond and more elastic than rubber, it’s a carbon lattice that is just one atom


thick, and almost transparent. It


MODEL MATERIAL Physicist Andre Geim holds a model of graphene fibers. Inset: Actual piece of graphene, which is almost transparent.


GRAPHENE


sounds fl imsy, but it’s not. Graphene is the strongest material ever produced by man. “It’s 200 times stronger than structural steel,” says mechanical engineering professor James Hone of Columbia University. “It would take an elephant, balanced on a pencil, to break through a sheet of graphene the thickness of Saran Wrap.” Graphene has been


around for about 10 years, but scientists are just now starting to understand its potential, and it could


bring a wide- ranging revolution


that will likely aff ect everyone.


Three million sheets


of graphene are only one millimeter (1/25th of an inch) thick, so its use as a component of incredibly strong composite materials could transform air travel and transportation. A new generation of lightweight, superstrong planes and cars could go farther on much less fuel. Researchers have


discovered it’s the best conductor of heat and electricity ever known —


64 NEWSMAX MAXLIFE | AUGUST 2012


1,000 times more effi cient than copper.


COMPUTER REVOLUTION


IBM’s new graphene


transistor is the fastest in the world, nearly four times faster than a conventional silicone equivalent. In theory, graphene


transistors could eventually be hundreds of times faster. And scientists at the University of California at Berkeley have created tiny graphene modulators 10 times faster at transmitting data than ordinary fi ber optics.


Engineers at the


University of Texas have discovered that by replacing the carbon used in ultra-capacitors with graphene, it’s possible to store double the amount of energy. Northwestern University


has found that a specially crafted graphene electrode can allow a lithium-ion battery to store 10 times as much power and charge 10 times faster — and last longer, too. This means graphene makes it possible for a battery to be 10 times smaller than today’s, but with the same capacity.


P.63: COURTESY OF CUPERTINO CITY HALL / P.64: GEIM/JAMES KING-HOLMES/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / GRAPHENE/JI HYE HONG


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