It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Solar cells
The USC Viterbi School of Engineering lab reported the large scale production of highly transparent graphene films by chemical vapor deposition in 2008. In this process, researchers create ultra-thin graphene sheets by first depositing carbon atoms in the form of graphene films on a nickel plate from methane gas. Then they lay down a protective layer of thermoplastic over the graphene layer and dissolve the nickel underneath in an acid bath. In the final step they attach the plastic-protected graphene to a very flexible polymer sheet, which can then be incorporated into an OPV cell (graphene photovoltaics). Graphene/polymer sheets have been produced that range in size up to 150 square centimeters and can be used to create dense arrays of flexible OPV cells. It may eventually be possible to run printing presses laying extensive areas covered with inexpensive solar cells, much like newspaper presses print newspapers (roll-to-roll)[171][172]
Originally posted by Thermo Klein
reply to post by kdog1982
actually it got a line in the History part, but it could certainly be mentioned again!
(Shortly after, we created bucky tubes, or Carbon nanotubes, that were strong enough to hold a satelite in orbit and smaller than a human hair.)
Originally posted by Jon Quinn
Another thing I heard on is that the guys who published the papers from the UoM decided to publically release the data and reports and not sell them or try to patent their methods. This is the reason why graphene research has taken off all over the world, and partially why they got the nobel prize.
You haven't yet patented graphene. Why is that?
We considered patenting; we prepared a patent and it was nearly filed. Then I had an interaction with a big, multinational electronics company. I approached a guy at a conference and said, "We've got this patent coming up, would you be interested in sponsoring it over the years?" It's quite expensive to keep a patent alive for 20 years. The guy told me, "We are looking at graphene, and it might have a future in the long term. If after ten years we find it's really as good as it promises, we will put a hundred patent lawyers on it to write a hundred patents a day, and you will spend the rest of your life, and the gross domestic product of your little island, suing us." That's a direct quote.
I considered this arrogant comment, and I realized how useful it was. There was no point in patenting graphene at that stage. You need to be specific: you need to have a specific application and an industrial partner. Unfortunately, in many countries, including this one, people think that applying for a patent is an achievement. In my case it would have been a waste of taxpayers' money.
Originally posted by Thermo Klein
reply to post by sealing
so far the graphene sheets have been made in extremely small dimensions and mainly focused on electronic functions. However as the technology progresses I can't imagine it wouldn't be used for things like bulletproof vests, etc.
Damn... Of course....
Well it's either bullets and/or tornados for me.
So is there a giant race on to produce Graphene
as quickly as possible?
Can I get what I need to make it at Home Depot?
Why aren't we all spinning a giant wheel that makes
continent size pieces of Graphene?
If there was a comet about to hit the US
and everyone in the country played
the "parachute game",could we negate most of the energy?
Except of course those brave and flattened
parachute lifters directly in the path.