Demand for graphene rising, making nuclear power safer

Another wondrous use of Graphene - making nuclear power safer. In an article about the surging demand for Graphene this little nugget of information stands out:

A new generation of nuclear reactors called pebble-bed nuclear reactors use large amounts of flake graphite. These reactors get their name from the pebble-sized spheres of graphite mixed with uranium that they contain. “This structure allows pebble bed reactors to produce power more efficiently – and safely – than conventional reactors,” Alex Cowie, editor of Diggers & Drillers, wrote recently. “This technology means nuclear reactors can be smaller, and as easy to run as turning a switch.”

Finally - Transistor (Barristor) made of graphene

Want 100 x Performance? Chip it in!

Samsung has developed what others were trying to do until now. Graphene could not switch on/off well and they seem to have nailed it.

For a more scientific information, read through the Science Magazine abstract on Graphene Barristor, a Triode Device with a Gate-Controlled Schottky Barrier.

For a less scientific mind, read the Samsung develops graphene device for transistor use.

Super strong and versatile polymers bound with graphene

Graphene is indeed an unstoppable force. Scientists have come up with a way how to combine it with plastics in order to create super-materials. Check this out:
Jaeton Glover, a post-doctoral chemist at William & Mary, explains that the group incorporates graphene oxide into polymers, a process that opens the door for a range of enhanced plastics that are super-strong as well as super-versatile.

See the original article called New graphene oxide-reinforced polymers show bright promise - Nano Academia Nanotechnology news.

UK Govt Squandering Science Funds

In a letter to the The Daily Telegraph a group of scientists including Sir Andrew Geim accuse the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of interferign with funding for science projects to meet policy objectives.

“The EPSRC is no longer allocating funds on a fair and transparent basis,” the letter says. “Excellence is a secondary consideration. The wealth of talent following new ideas, which could and would compete for such funding, is being side-lined on the whims of administrators. Non-competitive processes, in whatever arena, are a poor investment and such misuse of public funds is deeply worrying.”

This letter is arriving on the same day that another group of another 100 scientists are delivering a coffin to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to protest the death of science.

Graphene goes into sound and sonic cloaking

There is an article in New Scientist that tells us how graphene could be used for sound cloaking. Apparently, it's properties allow the sound travel guided around or through objects!

Nanotech 2012 Conference will be in Santa Clara

If you're in Santa Clara from June 18th until the 21st - you're in for a treat. The Nanotech 2012 Conference will be happening with nearly two days of events covering the big-daddy of nanotech materials - Graphene. If the presentations aren't your taste then there is also a half day work shop on Graphene.

Unfortunately in the 2 weeks of this sites existence we have not made enough money to afford tickets (plane, conference or even meal), but we now have a goal for next years Nanotech 2013. Of course this is predicated on the doom sayers interpretation of the ending of the Mayan calendar being incorrect and that we will all be alive next year.

Perhaps the end of the Mayan calendar, and the start of the next age is really the start of the Graphene age of wonders.

Sir Andre Geim is Knighted

Already a Nobel laureate, Sir Andrew Geim, one of the original discoverers of Graphene has now been Knighted.

Sir Andre Geim, the scientist from the University of Manchester who discovered the "wonder material" graphene with colleague Professor Konstantin Novoselov, has been awarded a knighthood.

 I'm surprised it took 8 years, but apparently the Queen is a bit slow in her advanced age.

Graphene paper discovery

Big news, big news! Scientists have developed a graphene paper.

Why is it big? Because the material binds water as well as repels it (What?). Now, it also has some shape memory and other features added to it.

This information is spreading quickly. Quite a few mentions on twitter, will give you a lot of results.

Will you be wearing Graphexeter soon?

There's a new material made from two layers of graphene sandwiching chlorine that supposedly makes graphene even more conductive without sacrificing transparency.

Scientists Invent Graphene for Wearable Electronics, Mirrors Tom's Hardware Guide The new material is call GraphExeter and is based on two graphene layers with ferric chloride molecules between them. According to the research report, ferric chloride greatly improves the electrical conductivity of graphene, but do not affect its ...

No estimate yet on when this new material will be available - but imagine the uses in women's bikinis!

New Graphene Centre Laboratory in Bath

The University of Bath is opening a new Graphene Centre Laboratory including the ability to build Graphene structures one atom at a time.

  The new laboratory, officially opened by our Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Glynis Breakwell on Tuesday 1 May, forms part of the Centre for Graphene Science, which brings together expertise at the Universities of Bath and Exeter. Professor Simon Bending from the University's Department of Physics said: "Graphene is a remarkable material made of a single layer of carbon atoms. Combining high strength, transparency and flexibility with excellent electrical and thermal conductivity, it has many potential applications."

Building atomic structures an atom at a time could be one of the great achievements of our time, there has long been talk of  atomic scale robots for medical use. Perhaps when Skynet finally does take over it won't be with large humanoid robots, but instead by microscopic death machines.

Making graphene is 'easy'

There are quite a few articles and videos on making graphene.

This video is like most of them and instructs you on how to make graphene from graphite stuck on a tape, then transferred onto a solid metal pad for microscope viewing. This will of course not lead to producing sheets of graphene, but you could eventually achieve getting a bit of it.

This article will tell you more about the details and what size you could possibly achieve with that method. There is also the Nobel prize winner Konstantin Novoselov talking about and demonstrating the method.

Graphene muscles for robots

There is a nice article about how muscles can be made of graphene for new generation of robots. Appears that the muscle technology is one of the few essentials that has been keeping the robotics at bay until now.

Check out the reference article at geek.com.

Does Graphene have a competitor in Silicene?

There's a new compound that may be closer to actual production use than Graphene - and it is Silicene. Single layer silicone with many of the same properties as Graphene.


Forget Graphene, Silicene Is Here to Blow Your Mind - Gizmodo
Well it looks like silicene is here to steal the spotlight. Researchers have just made the first sheet of single-atom thick silicon. Silicene has been a work in progress for years, but they think they've finally got it down now, and it represents a ... Move over graphene, silicene is the new star material New Scientist

all 10 news articles »

Will Silicene soon supersede Graphene?

Graphene - What you may have missed by now

1. Research in graphene has actually been rewarded with a nobel prize in physics / 2010 (Andre Geim, Konstantin Novoselov)
2. Is called the 'perfect atomic lattice', because of its molecular structure, being one atom thick

Graphene in Sci-Fi (Night's Dawn Trilogy)

I have just started reading the Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. I have seen a reference to a similar material:

The armour which went on top of his new shiny-black skin was a dull monobonded-carbon exoskeleton with a built-in cold-gas manoeuvring pack, capable of withstanding virtually any kinetic impact the Ruin Ring would shoot at him. The SII suit wouldn’t puncture, no matter what struck him, but it would transmit any physical knock. He ran both suit and armour checklists again while he clipped tools to his belt.