Physicists Build Circuit That Generates Clean, Limitless Power From Graphene

A team of University of Arkansas physicists has successfully developed a circuit capable of capturing graphene's thermal motion and converting it into an electrical current.

“An energy-harvesting circuit based on graphene could be incorporated into a chip to provide clean, limitless, low-voltage power for small devices or sensors,” said Paul Thibado, professor of physics and lead researcher in the discovery.

The findings, published in the journal Physical Review E, are proof of a theory the physicists developed at the U of A three years ago that freestanding graphene — a single layer of carbon atoms — ripples and buckles in a way that holds promise for energy harvesting.

Physicists Build Circuit That Generates Clean, Limitless Power From Graphene

Right now it is hard to produce useful “sheets” of pure graphene. They can only be made at a very small scale(AFAIK). Large scale production of graphene could be used for everything from a space elevator to unlimited free power. I would love to know if it is being made and used somehow in black projects.

It looks like for the near future of graphene (publicly, anyway) it will only be able to be used like a small battery for a watch. There are many uses today for a small “battery” that never dies.

Unlike all the new batteries that have been in the news recently. This is not a battery, it is a battery alternative.

It works off the fact that graphene at it’s normal state of rest is always in motion. The molecular shape of the graphene keeps going from concave to convex and back again.

By all measures, graphene shouldn't exist. The fact it does comes down to a neat loophole in physics that sees an impossible 2D sheet of atoms act like a solid 3D material.

It turns out the 'loophole' was the random jiggling of atoms popping back and forth, giving the 2D sheet of graphene a handy third dimension.

In other words, graphene was possible because it wasn't perfectly flat at all, but vibrated on an atomic level in such a way that its bonds didn't spontaneously unravel.

Strange Atomic Ripples in Graphene Could Unlock Clean, Limitless Energy


Graphene is really cool stuff. There are many other threads on ATS concerning Graphene. Everything from water filters to UFO’s.

Graphene 'Wonder Material' Made with Kitchen Blender

The World’s First Graphene Battery Power Bank

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

Significance of Graphene and the Alien/UFO Community

And more, if you search ATS.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

So, continuous power like a solar panel always getting sun or a windmill turning with no variation in wind speed.

Nice.

Although I love hearing this news, I remember reading something similar about 10 or more years ago. It convinced me so much that I invested some money into some graphene enterprises. So far they have lost almost all of their value, but who knows? Maybe someday they will be worth something.

a reply to: Fools

I think the tech may have advanced since then and for national security reasons, not many people know.

Remember when we where teached that sperm swam by wiggle its tail back and forth but now we know that's not the case, it only looked like that from a 2d perspective, the sperm actually rotates:



So, could it be the same with graphene, it wiggles if laid as a flat sheet but if a graphene where not laid down on a flat surface but rather suspended in both ends instead as a thread or thin sheet, would it be free to wiggle in all directions? If that would be the case then one could build multiple copies of this structure 360 degrees around the graphene thus harnessing the power in all directions as it "rotates" (wiggle in any direction, analog to a jumprope) in the center of the anode/cathode structures around it

Atoms should not have a concept of "back & forth", the back & forth properties of graphene is a result of being laid as a flat sheet thus forcing the wiggle in the non blocking direction so if it wasn't blocked by another surface or itself then it should be free to wiggle in any direction that the atom happen to "popp" to?

a reply to: JesperA

Wow excellent post.

I didn't know sperm don't use a tail that goes back and forth, in this timeline..

If you´re a UFO believer as me; I´ve heard stories that at least some the power devices that they find inside the crashed UFOs looks like a transparent piece of glass - I´ve suspected that these limitless power devices are made of graphene, which is transparent just like glass.

-MM

I read that some tech team figured out how to make sheets of graphine.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Sound's like a variation on a Zero Point Energy generator though perhaps that is not what this is, interesting.

I expect this will go quiet and we the public shall NEVER get our hands on any of this technology but I do seriously hope the cat is out of the bag and that it at least benefits the human race even if those who make money out of selling us power will NEVER allow us to get this in our homes.

Small power yes, put into arrays of parallel and series circuits along with superconductive technology's and this becomes a whole other matter.

Im going to say im skeptical you can harvest energy from Brownian motion. yes it violates our understanding of physics because you could create an unlimited energy source from things wiggling in any solution.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Thanks for doing this thread! I was going to do one but real world butted into my online activity. It hasn’t let up; kind of like this Covid thing. (Weird! Never noticed that before. And wouldn’t put it past Universe to try and make me laugh at how ridiculous we take ourselves! ) what I am trying to say is that I would have been a bad thread poster.

This whole Brownian Motion being captured by graphene and carbon nanotubes has been documented before. What these researchers did was to make a circuit at the scale of the graphene flake that harnesses a DC current from what all intents and purposes is an “alternating current”.

That is where the hope lies: if only they can make this in large quantities... then it will be useful energy.

That is the problem with graphene. It is so interesting, and alluring, to make it the “be all” material.

Unfortunately, we are still at “lab bench top” phase as only flakes can be made at a high enough purity level to be used this way (free power).

The graphene oxide (a less pure version) has found a variety of uses including a ski jacket, golf club, tennis racket, and, also just introduced yesterday,a mat made of recycled tires!

Anyway, this is cool news!



But as I keep on saying now, until I can hold it in my grubby hand it is just a possibility and not yet a reality.

And that is the real reason that I dragged my feet on creating a thread about this.

-The Boy Who Cried ‘Graphene’

Carbon is in the periodic table. It has an atomic number of 6. That means a carbon atom has 6 protons, 6 neutrons, and 6 electrons. Since carbon is in the second row (or second period), it has 2 electron orbit

The second electron shell, 2n, contains another spherical s orbital plus three dumbbell-shaped p orbitals, each of which can hold two electrons. After the 1 s 1s 1s orbital is filled, the second electron shell begins to fill, with electrons going first into the 2 s 2s 2s orbital and then into the three p orbitals.

Geometrically simple each arm of the atom one of six combine into functional
coordinates.

From the article

long as the graphene's temperature allowed the atoms to shift around uncomfortably, it would continue to ripple and bend.

Place electrodes to either side of sections of this buckling graphene, and you'd have a tiny shifting voltage.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

a reply to: LookingAtMars

circuit capable of capturing graphene's thermal motion and converting it into an electrical current

I don't know exactly what this means, but I do know that thermal energy is finite because it always is. The thermal energy of matter comes from the atomic vibrations, which is not a source of infinite energy. So I'm guessing it works by absorbing the heat from the environment around it, which could potentially make it work for a device like a watch which is able to absorb your body heat. It could also be good for keeping large server farms cool but wont provide an endless amount of free energy.

Right now it is hard to produce useful “sheets” of pure graphene. They can only be made at a very small scale(AFAIK).

I'm fairly sure scientists discovered ways to mass produce sheets of graphene quite a few years ago. I've been waiting to see graphene batteries become widely available for many years, although there's probably some specialists who claim to sell them, I haven't really looked.

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

They were supposed to have graphene light bulbs but a patent suit happened.

And like the Kennedy Assassination it has reached ridiculous heights!

Mass production of sheets hasn’t happened. I am pretty sure other versions of graphene production has but not sheets.

A sheet of graphene produced in rolls changes our world in ways we can only dream of.

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: ChaoticOrder

They were supposed to have graphene light bulbs but a patent suit happened.

And like the Kennedy Assassination it has reached ridiculous heights!

Mass production of sheets hasn’t happened. I am pretty sure other versions of graphene production has but not sheets.

A sheet of graphene produced in rolls changes our world in ways we can only dream of.

They do make graphene sheets you can purchase them if you like.

graphene-supermarket.com...

All you need is an energy density gradient. Ambient is only relative.

Well I should make a thread My self .
SEE there is a way To get endless power From moving water from a LOW place to A higher place USING ZERO POWER .

But I bet every one goes NO way Possible .
Look Up capillary action Its how Trees get water from the ground all the way Up to near 500 FEET for red woods and NO MOTION or power or pumps needed .

All It takes to prove this is 2 5 gallon Buckets - 10 Pices of 1/2 PVC pipes and SPUNGES to FILL the PIPS with .
Set up Right the water is DRAWEN from the LOWER BUCKET to the HIGHER bucket through capillary action FROM the SPUNGES stuck Inside the PIPES once In the UPPER Bucket the water can go BACK down through another pipe with a generator that the water spins as It flows down to start all over in the lower Bucket a closed system BUT NOT perpMotion as without capillary action it cant work .
It would JUST take alot OF pipes as capillary action is slow to gain larger amounts of electrical energy .

But once BUILT on a Large enough scale well mite need new sponges every so OFFTON OR BUILD pipes with membranes very very close toghter capillary action works on the fact water has Tinsel strength FILL A CUP totally full it is NOT flat BUT rounded Its that natural way water does This that lest the next CELL up in plants carry the water higher .

Anyway Its simple and one the size of say a water tower with a 1000 PIPES for the UPFLOW would produce alot of power .

a reply to: LookingAtMars

originally posted by: dragonridr
Im going to say im skeptical you can harvest energy from Brownian motion. yes it violates our understanding of physics because you could create an unlimited energy source from things wiggling in any solution.

The word "limitless" used by Paul Thibado, professor of physics and lead researcher in the discovery in the story linked from the OP seems like hyperbole, it would have limits. It doesn't violate any laws of physics that I can see. If it's at room temperature, it has thermal energy and if extracting that reduces the temperature, as long as there's a thermal reservoir around it to re-supply more thermal energy, then no laws of physics are violated. But, that thermal reservoir is a limit, albeit it could be a big limit, but it's a limit nonetheless.

originally posted by: midnightstar
Well I should make a thread My self .

Yes, you certainly should have made a separate thread instead of hijacking this one.

All It takes to prove this is 2 5 gallon Buckets - 10 Pices of 1/2 PVC pipes and SPUNGES to FILL the PIPS with .
Set up Right the water is DRAWEN from the LOWER BUCKET to the HIGHER bucket through capillary action FROM the SPUNGES stuck Inside the PIPES once In the UPPER Bucket the water can go BACK down through another pipe with a generator that the water spins as It flows down to start all over in the lower Bucket a closed system BUT NOT perpMotion as without capillary action it cant work .

You're telling us we can do the experiment but you haven't actually done it yourself, right? If you have, how much energy did your generator generate?

The pipes have to be extremely narrow to get much lift and I'm not seeing how you get the water out of the pipes at the higher elevation. The water will go up the narrow pipes, but it won't fill a wide bucket, because the whole principle is based on narrow pipes and the bucket is too wide to fill. So you don't end up with water in the top bucket, you end up with a bunch of narrow pipes filled with water, and I think you'll find it difficult to power a generator with those, but if you did that, make a thread about it.

"Limitless" is a word that does not belong in the description of any closed system, otherwise it invokes the Perpetual Motion dogma, where the Laws of Thermodynamics forbid it.

Friction = Heat = Resistance = Loss.

The theory is cool, but it needs to be explained outside of the "something for nothing" context and shows where the entropy, which is in everything, comes into play.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

I won't pretend to understand everything in your OP, but I do know that when it comes to supercapacitors, hemp has it beat;

...Many may know of hemp's use as a building material or medicine, but seldom know it can be used as a supercapacitor. A capacitor is a device used to store electric charge on one or more pairs of conductors separated by an insulator.

...Naturally, graphene is undergoing extensive research regarding capacitors. It can hold an impressive amount of electrons and can discharge practically instantly, giving power as quickly as it is needed. But graphene batteries are absurdly expensive, and hemp-based capacitors are proving to be a viable alternative.

...“Our device’s electrochemical performance is on par with or better than graphene-based devices,” says David Mitlin, one of the key researchers of hemp-based capacitors. “The key advantage is our electrodes, they are made from bio-waste using a simple process, and therefore, are much cheaper than graphene.”

The hemp-based carbon nanosheets also allegedly outperform standard supercapacitors by nearly 200%.

InterestingEngineering

Again, I don't fully understand this stuff, but it sure is fascinating, S&F