Graphene 'Wonder Material' Made with Kitchen Blender

Scientists have outlined how they managed to make the "wonder material" graphene using a kitchen blender.

Graphene is thin, strong, flexible and electrically conductive, and has the potential to transform electronics as well as other technologies.
An Irish-UK team poured graphite powder (used in pencil leads) into a blender, then added water and dishwashing liquid, mixing at high speed.
The results are reported in the journal Nature Materials.

Because of its potential uses in industry, a number of researchers have been searching for ways to make defect-free graphene in large amounts.

The material comprises a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb structure. Graphite - mixed with clay to produce the lead in pencils - is effectively made up of many layers of graphene stacked on top of one another.
Jonathan Coleman from Trinity College Dublin and colleagues tested out a variety of laboratory mixers as well as kitchen blenders as potential tools for manufacturing the wonder material.

Graphene:

Graphene is a form of carbon that exists as a sheet, one atom thick
Atoms are arranged into a two-dimensional honeycomb structure
Discovery of graphene announced in 2004 by the journal Science
About 100 times stronger than steel; conducts electricity better than copper
Touted as possible replacement for silicon in electronics
About 1% of graphene mixed into plastics could make them conductive

They said it isn't advisable to try at home, but I hope someone here will try anyway. Be sure to report your results back. From what I have read this can be the wonder material that makes solar power affordable and realistic for everyone with far more electrical output. Overall I think this is awesome. Just one step closer to a better tomorrow.

Also

The scientists have been working with UK-based firm Thomas Swan to scale up the process, with the aim of building a pilot plant that could produce a kilo of graphene per day by the end of the year.

Read more at: BBC

a reply to: Grimpachi

Is that picture of graphene some sort of optical illusion. I don't like anyone messing with my eyes. Jk! When I scroll up and down past a certain level of the lattice, the picture moves. Just an off-topic comment for you.

ETA: I like the story, by the way. I've been following developments on graphene for a long time.

I heard that they were using disc readers to make graphene...because they had lasers in em....
so I assumed that one needed a laser, not a blender to produce this stuff....
I await the first report of such a creation with you....somebody will try it im sure....

Here is a video example:

I follow this guy on youtube, he makes all kinds of intresting stuff at home.

Nice this has been done for years now, just not using a blander, if you want to do it at home it wont really work, you need the right structure in the surfactant, the common sodium laurilsulfate used in most detergent is not adequate for this. the best concentration they achieve was around 0.01mg/mL too low for many things, i dont have access to the paper but in the supplementary information they make no mention of conductivity measurements, this is also very important as it change drastically depending on the quality of the graphene, also they say single layer graphene obtained by them is 2nm thickness, i would love to see how they came to that conclusion when most people would attribute that thickness to 2-3 layers, the paper must be very well done nonetheless by just looking the supplementary information.

Don't expect this to be used in electronics, CVD graphene is better for that, this may be used for a low end use of graphene that does not require high performance

Once you've made it what do you do with it?

It really is amazing stuff and will provide new levels of advancement for our future. Companies and products to look out for is: Lockheed Martin they are producing grapheme water filters that will reduce the energy by x200 filtering the same amount of water. Sierra Wireless Technologies are ushering in the Internet of Things using M2M (machine to machine) technology. Good stuff!

I'm curious if it has any piezioelectrical properties as well.

2nd

Will want to follow up with this.

originally posted by: bitsforbytes
Once you've made it what do you do with it?

yeah, that's my question....is there a practical use for the everyday guy?....I can see where industry might use it...but, why would I want to do this at home?

a reply to: jimmyx

That's what I am saying. I think that this can be used instead of copper for electrical circuits or even microchips.

a reply to: Grimpachi

Here's the Graphene Mega-Thread (literally)...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

so you make this Paste(Assuming its a paste) and then what? lay it in thin layers to dry? coat things like fiberglass and make forms and shapes?

a reply to: mindseye1609

If you dry it you would aggregate it making it something similar to graphite again

originally posted by: bitsforbytes
Once you've made it what do you do with it?

For a layman such as myself I am not sure of what I could apply it to. I have read an article where someone was able to use the graphene in printer cartridges though I am not sure what to print with it. I guess with a 3d printer a person could print circuit boards. I would like to know how someone as myself could use it as well. My understanding is that it can make plastics extremely strong many times stronger than steel. Actually it is said that strips of deform free graphene is the strongest material in the world. Professor Hone once put it as the material is so strong that "it would take an elephant, balanced on a pencil, to break through a sheet of graphene the thickness of Saran Wrap.”

If anyone knows how to apply this stuff without a lab or huge facilities please post. I would love to play with it trying to make stuff.

Once the process for using this stuff in 3d printers is fairly common I may break down and buy one. Way too cool.

a reply to: Grimpachi

Sound great, but in practice: once I get the mashed graphite/water/soap, how do I make it into a one-atom thick sheet? Do I just simply lay it on the table and roll it like a pizza dough? Do I have to cook it?

(I know you can't really know, I'm just asking this as a general question, in case someone happens to know the answer. )

Nice find, BTW, Definitively S&F from me!

originally posted by: Grimpachi
Professor Hone once put it as the material is so strong that "it would take an elephant, balanced on a pencil, to break through a sheet of graphene the thickness of Saran Wrap.”

Has anyone actually seen a demonstration of this type of strength?
We hear about this, they talk of this, I'd like to see this.
I guess they havent yet made a sheet of it like this to demonstrate this property.

Will it protect my sandwich?

a reply to: swanne
The article says that they use a strip of tape.

a reply to: daskakik

I was reading in a hurry. Thanks for the info!

What I think would be cool is for ATS to put together some ideas and get people experimenting building their own graphene apparatus from solar cells to whatever else. I bet the the community is intelligent enough to figure it out.