The GRAPHENE mega thread - because it's technology you need to know about!

What is the connection between Graphene and Manchester (UK) University?

amazing thread, huge thanks to the OP and others who posted info, i can't believe i had never heard of this before, it definitely seems like it could take over the world in the not too distant future. Watching the video of it soaking up the oil and ending up with pure clean water or sand is really amazing. It's one of these things than could be used in endless different ways.

to poster above:

A thin flake of ordinary carbon, just one atom thick, lies behind this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov have shown that carbon in such a flat form has exceptional properties that originate from the remarkable world of quantum physics.

This year’s Laureates have been working together for a long time now. Konstantin Novoselov, 36, first worked with Andre Geim, 51, as a PhD-student in the Netherlands. He subsequently followed Geim to the United Kingdom. Both of them originally studied and began their careers as physicists in Russia. Now they are both professors at the University of Manchester.

Andre Geim, Dutch citizen. Born 1958 in Sochi, Russia. Ph.D. 1987 from Institute of Solid State Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Chernogolovka, Russia. Director of Manchester Centre for Meso-science & Nanotechnology, Langworthy Professor of Physics and Royal Society 2010 Anniversary Research Professor, University of Manchester, UK.

Konstantin Novoselov, British and Russian citizen. Born 1974 in Nizhny Tagil, Russia. Ph.D. 2004 from Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Professor and Royal Society Research Fellow, University of Manchester, UK.

reply to post by dowot

 

What is the connection between Graphene and Manchester (UK) University?

Not to get too indepth but Wikipedia has the details.

A key advance in the science of graphene came when Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov at Manchester University managed to extract single-atom-thick crystallites (graphene) from bulk graphite in 2004.[13] The Manchester researchers pulled out graphene layers from graphite and transferred them onto thin SiO2 on a silicon wafer in a process sometimes called micromechanical cleavage or, simply, the Scotch tape technique. The SiO2 electrically isolated the graphene, and was weakly interacting with the graphene, providing nearly charge-neutral graphene layers. The silicon beneath the SiO2 could be used as a "back gate" electrode to vary the charge density in the graphene layer over a wide range.

Click here for wikipedia article


As for the University, it's always good news when something mindblowing has a breakthrough in a place you walk around everyday I find it inspiring!

The Uni has a great history it was set up in the city ( which was the first industrialised city in the world) as a technical institute in the 19th Century. The atom was first split here by Rutherford and the first computer made.

reply to post by Thermo Klein


Good Work! Great Thread!

Happy New Year to You and Yours!

S&F Best

Student uses graphene to come up with a way to store Hydrogen for vehicle use.

reply to post by Thermo Klein

thats what first crossed my mind as I started reading your thread. I'm also thinking about it's use in solar pannels.

Hi and a happy/prosperous new year to all..

Thanks for the links, I was certain I had heard that Manchester Uni was involved, but that was on some comedy radio show and thought it was a joke.

Good to see the UK making something.

Is it just me or does it seem like scientists should have figured this out years and years ago. I'm not crapping on this discovery at all! In fact I think this discovery has the potential to change the entire world, but I mean if your a scientist who understands "nano-things" and how atomic structure works isn't this one of those "right in front of your nose" scenarios.. Like I said I give the people who did discover it all the credit in the world, but the way they describe it in the OP's videos makes it seem almost obvious.

This discovery is wonderful, but I wonder what it may do to demand for and the future value of silver. Any thoughts?

Damn Thermo...

this is an awesome thread..

glad you brought this to light

awesome stuff..

I am going to research more on this..

Thanks and HNY!

This discovery is amazing and the potential for huge innovation and improvement is tangible, but are we responsible enough to apply the knowledge?

That is always the question with new technology. The more potential, the more risk.

When they were discovering the ability to split hydrogen atoms they tested an atom splitter with the knowledge that it may possibly unravel the fabric of the universe by causing a chain reaction.

They did it anyway.

Having the ability to make such a material is a very heavy responsibility, one I hope we take seriously.

S & F OP!

This is an amazing technology.

I am very happy it is mainstream technology. I worry constantly about new tech that never
makes the news and instead is utilized for weapons or sequestered by the 1% for themselves.

Like my tag says. Knowledge is the greatest weapon...it is also a commodity that can be bought.

I wanted to post a thought I had on reading and thinking of graphene. I remember watching a show on the Roswell, NM crash of an alleged "UFO" on a show that talked about a witness who found debris of an unidentified material that had properties that could be metallic looking, and was hard and flexible. Could this have been graphene and/or carbon nanotube material that the U.S. government was experimenting on and the Roswell Crash was the cover up?

(Excerpt from Wikipedia.com on the properties of material of Roswell debris

"There was all kinds of stuff—small beams about three eighths or a half inch square with some sort of hieroglyphics on them that nobody could decipher. These looked something like balsa wood, and were about the same weight, except that they were not wood at all. They were very hard, although flexible, and would not burn....One thing that impressed me about the debris was the fact that a lot of it looked like parchment. It had little numbers with symbols that we had to call hieroglyphics because I could not understand them. They could not be read, they were just like symbols, something that meant something, and they were not all the same, but the same general pattern, I would say. They were pink and purple. They looked like they were painted on. These little numbers could not be broken, could not be burned. I even took my cigarette lighter and tried to burn the material we found that resembled parchment and balsa, but it would not burn—wouldn't even smoke. But something that is even more astonishing is that the pieces of metal that we brought back were so thin, just like tinfoil in a pack of cigarettes. I didn't pay too much attention to that at first, until one of the boys came to me and said: "You know that metal that was in there? I tried to bend the stuff and it won't bend. I even tried it with a sledgehammer. You can't make a dent on it," Marcel said.[3]"

Source: (en.wikipedia.org...)

reply to post by XTTIOTX


While reading and researching this I also got the idea it should have been done a long time ago... but it seems it's pretty difficult to separate the individual graphene sheets from the graphite [chunks]. There are now several ways to create it from scratch that became available quite recently, and the reason for the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010, which is why it is now much more prevalent and being created in universities and small start-ups.

The main way used currently in high-quantity manufacturing is forcing acids and rare metals between the graphene layers of a chunk of graphite to separarte the graphene layers. This is reasonably expensive.

But, we're finding new ways all the time! Yeah for unrestricted research!

reply to post by Thermo Klein


One of the best applications it could be used for is interstella craft and vehicles and war machines, but yet again, this is probebly already on the agender, the potential applications is phenominal!

reply to post by Thermo Klein


One of the best applications it could be used for is interstella craft and vehicles and war machines, but yet again, this is probebly already on the agender, the potential applications is phenominal!

reply to post by jimnuggits


it's a very fair question!!

I happened to think while making this that someone can buy a small amount of this for $99 USD and make a "traffic stopper" Imagine an invisible barrier that suddenly stops everything that hits it! bad .....

I imagine its quite a bit more difficult to use that just stretching it out into a clear barrier but.... it might be a good thing! There are plenty of techs we aren't "old enough" to use such as lasers. This is easily obtainable so we have no choice in the matter - it's out there!

Originally posted by daaskapital
Will it stop a bullet

ooh ya it will!! you wouldn't even feel the heat or pressure from it!

since it's a conductor, I wonder if it would make good solar panels that are likely to be hit with some wear... well, maybe not panels but use them in a design meant to be durable, like an outer layer and also be designed to pull in solar energy as a dual purpose.

reply to post by problemsolvr


I ran across this idea a few times in researching this thread - didn't really find anything plausible other than the fact that the dates match. Graphene proposed in 1947, same year as Roswell crash.

My Dad was actually in gov't reconnaissance, working as a contractor in the Pentagon during Project Bluebook; he held the vary piece you discuss. Both the I-beam and the cigarette foil.

I don't really have any opinion on whether it was graphene or not though.