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

To produce the graphene, soybean oil is heated in a tube furnace for about 30 minutes where it decomposes into carbon building blocks on a foil made of nickel.

It is then rapidly cooled and diffuses on the surface of the foil into a thin rectangle of graphene film, about five centimetres by two centimetres and one nanometre thick (about 80,000 times thinner than a human hair).

Study co-author Dr Zhao Jun Han of the CSIRO said the process was faster and more energy-efficient than other methods.

"The other methods require a few hours for pumping a vacuum, growing a film, and cooling it down," he said.

Dr Zhao said the process could cut the cost of graphene production ten-fold.
...
Professor Officer said making graphene films on a commercial scale was an issue scientists were still trying to overcome worldwide.

The biggest graphene film that can currently be made using the process is the size of a credit card.

abc.net.au, news, 1/30/17 - Scientists cook up material 200 times stronger than steel out of soybean oil.

All these years and it is only up to a credit card sized film! The previous announcement made what looked like Sugar Smacks which is not the same as a sheet of graphene. I hope this scales! It sure beats the 23 steps (it is some ridiculous amount) with all the washing and rinsing of graphite down to a flat surface.

One of these days a roll-to-roll process will be made. Until then, any progress made is good progress!

ETA: It is also on a MSM source and not some lab announcement!

Two...

Currently, wearable sensors aren't widely commercially available, largely because of rigid designs that either will not wear well or wash well, making the clothing uncomfortable. The Cambridge team demonstrated the capability of the graphene ink in their published work by creating a motion sensor based on the conductive material which gave successful results. The motion sensor had been shown to work past 500 cycles after 10 washes—a big leap in the field of wearable, non-toxic graphene.

"Turning cotton fibers into functional electronic components can open to an entirely new set of applications from healthcare and wellbeing to the Internet of Things. Thanks to nanotechnology, in the future our clothes could incorporate these textile-based electronics and become interactive." - Dr Torrisi

Allaboutcircuits.com, 1/30/17 - Cambridge’s Environmentally-Friendly, Conductive Graphene Ink Can Survive the Washing Machine.

So they kind of dyed the cotton fiber with a graphene ink that allowed it to conduct electricity. I guess it does needs to stand up to the wash... it would be useless if it worked once, spill your coco on it and there goes your Bluetooth hoodie. See in the world I see, you were clothes that will last you whole life. The freeways will be filled with tiny figures pounding corn...

Three...

Rather than the current CVD method, methane gas can be bubbled directly in to the hot melt. Hydrogen will dissociate from carbon in methane if a metal with a high enough melting point is used. Researchers working on hydrogen generation have proved this, bubbling methane gas into the bottom of a reactor of liquid metal, and generating hydrogen bubbles out from the top of the reactor with carbon as a waste product. Our point of view is exactly the reverse, we want the carbon, and hydrogen is an incidental nuisance.

Can carbon dissolved in metal form graphene? In 2010 a team at the University of California–Riverside designed an experiment to find out. They found that molten metal could dissolve solid graphite and form graphene at the surface.

The team also found that nickel was better than copper at dissolving solid graphite. However they also found that the process was difficult to control and produced single layer and multiple layer graphene. They did not make any mention of the control factors. The primary issue was probably that they had used solid graphite as the carbon source. This means that the release of carbon in to the melt could not be controlled. It is also possible that the graphite was exfoliating into the melt rather than dissolving. Running the experiment again with another source of carbon would have eliminated this possibility. Their attention seems to have been on the graphene outputs rather than the raw material inputs and this probably explains why they appear not to have considered other sources of carbon.

By now you’ll be ahead of me. If we combine these research findings we can create the outline of a new controllable process by bubbling methane through molten metal and producing a layer of graphene at the surface.

Investorintel.com, 1/30/17 - Exploring new ideas of making large scale graphene sheets.

Pretty crazy idea! "Let's boil methane through liquid metal, add in some graphite, and let it float to the top so we skim of the sheet of single-layer graphene." I hope something like that happens. A kinder method over blowing up acetylene and you end up with a sheet.

PS - There is yet another story that just came out but it is subscription only. Graphene is predicted to melt at 6,000 K which means it might be used for one of my favs, nuclear fusion reactor wall lining. Probably with other materials. That is my guess and may be off in left field.

I would like to see graphene used to turn sea water into drinking water or water for crops as we all know finding clean water will be a major problem in the future and if I read it correctly graphene can only allow liquid to pass through but not minerals so it could in theory be the best way to desalinate sea water.

a reply to: SGThatred

That is one method which has been proven at lab levels. It seems that we are "stuck" because we cannot produce this product at industry levels.

As production gets better there are other graphene related substances that may even be better. I am thinking of graphene aerogel. Since they will be able to vary the size of the pores when the aerogel is created they should be able to do some pretty sophisticated sieving! I am talking molecule sized straining.

Imagine, sea water goes in, mostly sea water comes out one side. Out the other side comes deuterium (heavy sea water). When a nuclear reactor comes online they are going to need that as fuel. And it is a natural percentage of sea water. That is what they mean by "abundant fuel".

Carbon nanotubes are also thought to be good at desalination.

LGchem.com (only source from article)

LG Chem is gearing up the production of carbon nanotubes with a brand new facility it established in Yeosu, South Korea. According to a report from the Korea Times, the company spent $21.47 million in the new facility which it hopes will be in full operation by the end of 2018, with an expected annual production capacity of 400 tons.

Since 2011, the company has pushed for developing its own technologies and patents for the manufacture of carbon nanotubes, first establishing a pilot plant in 2013 with a manufacturing capacity of 20 tons.

EE Times (.eu), Feb. 1, 2017 - Carbon nanotubes by the ton.

400 tons!! Wow! I believe that it will be used with carbon fiber to increase strength and stability. But depending on the size it cold be used in almost anything: plastics, ceramics, metals, probably resins. It looks like batch production but I could be wrong. The previous production methods I was aware of were make a batch, then sift for the type you need (non-metallic CNTs). I was not aware that they could manufacture CNTs without the sifting or creating other types (double-, or more, walled CNTs)! They must also be able to control the diameter. Way to go South Korea!!



And here is a first! It looks like this will be 4th largest CNT producer in the world behind China, Japan and the US! I did not even know the US had a production facility!!
C-nano Technology: homepage.

[The researchers] found that the combination of graphene and pyroelectric materials—which generate a voltage when they are heated or cooled—yields a unique synergy that boosts the performance of thermal photodetectors.

The actual design of the device is fairly simple. The pyroelectric material acts as the substrate; a conductive channel made from single-layer graphene runs through it, and a floating gate electrode floats above it.

Changes in temperature create an electric field in the pyroelectric material and the floating gate focuses that field onto the graphene, which causes a change in the graphene’s electrical resistance. It is this change in resistance that is measured. What makes this latest thermal photodetector different from others is that it does not require built-in amplifiers to boost the electric field produced by the pyroelectric material.

...

“With a higher sensitivity detector, then you can restrict the band and still form an image just by using photons in a very narrow spectral range, and you can do multi-spectral IR imaging,” explained Colli. “For security screening, there are specific signatures that materials emit or absorb in narrow bands. So, you want a detector that's trained in that narrow band. This can be useful while looking for explosives, hazardous substances, or anything of the sort.”

IEEE Spectrum (.org), Feb. 3, 2017 - Graphene Infrared Eye Needs No Signal Amplification.

Another example of layering graphene to enhance the functionality of both materials. It is so sensitive the article says it is susceptible to thermal shock so they need to beef it up. And they are thinking of tuning for certain signals indicating what materials are emitting them like those listed above.

I am thinking, "Kind of like a tricorder"? But not for medical use. They do not need to cool it down with cryogenic gas either! That is pretty cool! And welcomed as there are tons of material brought into US ports that needs inspection.

Their device is about 2.5 cm long and can create a voltage of about 1.5 V – on par with a standard AA battery. While the power supply only delivers a few hundred nanoamps, the team connected several devices together to run a liquid-crystal display. With further improvements, the researchers say, the device could be used to run sterilization equipment and to purify or desalinate water in warm regions of the world.

…[Construction] involved depositing multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) onto a quartz substrate to create two electrodes. The substrate is about 25 mm long and the 2 mm electrodes are positioned at each end. Carbon black – tiny particles of carbon about 20 nm in diameter – was then deposited, covering the substrate to a thickness of about 70 µm. Copper wires were then attached to each electrode and a circuit was completed via a voltmeter.

One end of the device is placed in a beaker of deionized water so that the bottom few millimetres of the device are immersed. Capillary action draws water up the previously dry portion of the device, reaching a maximum distance of about 20 mm from the wet end in about 1 [hour]

Physicsworld.com, Feb. 6, 2017 - Water evaporation generates electrical energy.

Nothing but capillary action… that is pretty cool! A tiny amount of electricity but it is there. Takes a while. They placed it inside a sealed vessel to prove that electricity was being made by evaporation. They say the water is like an electrolyte when flowing through the CNTs which is the source of tiny current is coming from.

The team then connected four of their devices in series to create a power source that can deliver about 380 nA at 4.8 V – which was enough to drive a liquid-crystal display.

(same source)

a reply to: Thermo Klein

To my knowledge bucky tubes were even stronger than diamond (xyz) graphene only (xy)

(soure: LLNL youtube)

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has posted a video of carbon nanotubes performing "nucleation and self-organization" (LLNL's video blurb) sped up at 10x.

Understanding how carbon nanotubes (CNT) nucleate, grow and self-organize to form macroscale materials is critical for application-oriented design of next-generation supercapacitors, electronic interconnects, separation membranes and advanced yarns and fabrics.
...
Among other phenomena discovered, the researchers are the first to provide direct proof of how mechanical competition among neighboring carbon nanotubes can simultaneously promote self-alignment while also frustrating and limiting growth.

Phys.org, Feb. 10, 2017 - Nanotube growth moving in the right direction.

Pretty cool stuff! Hard to believe this is "first time" but then again I have never heard of an "environmental transmission electron microscope" either.

YAY! Another step forward on the future of materials!

We have developed a catalytic method (CoMoCAT®) that produces SWNT [Single Walled (Carbon) Nano Tubes] of high quality at very high selectivity, and with a remarkably narrow distribution of tube diameters. In this method, SWNT are grown by CO disproportionation (decomposititon into C and carbon dioxide) at 700-950°in flow of pure CO at a total pressure that typically ranges from 1 to 10 atm. Southwest Nano Technologies Inc. (SWeNT) located in Norman, Oklahoma is commercializing this method.

University of Oklahoma, Nanotube research - ComoCAT® Process - Fundamentals.

Having completed acquisition of substantially all of the assets of SouthWest Nanotechnologies (SWeNT) in 2016, CHASM Advanced Materials, Inc. has begun producing Few-wall and Single-wall Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) at its 18,000 sq. ft. manufacturing plant in Norman, Oklahoma. This expansion is being further supported by CHASM's 12,500 sq. ft. facility in Canton, Massachusetts (near Boston), which serves as its headquarters and applications development center. Engineering and R&D resources are located in both Canton and Norman.

Thanks to the patented CoMoCAT™ technology the company has exclusively licensed from the University of Oklahoma, CHASM is able to produce high-quality CNTs at large-scale and low-cost.
...
CHASM is marketing its CNT products under the brand Signis™, short for "insignis," the Latin word meaning distinguished, remarkable and extraordinary.

benzinga.com, Feb. 8, 2017 - CHASM is Manufacturing Carbon Nanotube Products.

So there is another manufacturer of CNTs on the ramp up for delivery of product. Soon to be 30,000 sq/feet of space in total... that is pretty impressive. They are using carbon monoxide bubbled through a catalyst that is heated. The CNTs are scooped off the top, the CO2 is recycled and converted back to CO, and new CO is added at the bottom to be bubbled back through. It is a continuous process that does not have to be stopped to collect the CNTs.

By varying the temperature of the reaction they can make different sized CNTs, either single-, or multi-, walled CNTs. Created fit-to-purpose has the day of carbon nanotube arrived?

a reply to: Jukiodone

The three-dimensional structures were created from a powdered nickel catalyst, surfactant-wrapped multiwall nanotubes and sugar as a carbon source. The materials were mixed and the water evaporated; the resulting pellets were pressed into a steel die and then heated in a chemical vapor deposition furnace, which turned the available carbon into graphene. After further processing to remove remnants of nickel, the result was an all-carbon foam in the shape of the die, in this case a screw. Tour said the method will be easy to scale up.

Phys.org, Feb. 14, 2017 - Graphene foam gets big and tough: Nanotube-reinforced material can be shaped, is highly conductive


(Source: Tour Group/Rice University from article cited)

How long has it been since that original announcement??! July 2016! So here is the explanation on what they created! So I guess the rivets hold the foam together that also links up with the pellets next to it resulting in a 3D foam structure. I wish they would have said so in the original announcement. "Hey guys! We think we can create pellets of graphene and carbon nanotubes that we can press together to make any shape we want! And it could replace metal fasteners because it is just as strong!" That is easy to understand rather than the cryptic:

Source: Phys.org, July 14, 2016, - 'Rivet graphene' proves its mettle: Toughened material is easier to handle, useful for electronics.

So they can make replacement for screws with graphene and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT). Add on top of that it is conductive... is that another step towards the elusive graphene battery?

The study on the new type of graphene, which is non-conductive and super-permeable, is featured in the international scientific journal “Science Advances” under the title “Realisation of continuous Zachariasen carbon monolayer.”

“If an amorphous two-dimensional material that allows penetration of water but not ions is developed, it can be used for seawater desalination,” a member of the research team said.

Koreatimes.com Feb. 13, 2017 - South Korean scientists add value to new kind of grapheme.

This was done by a Korean university and Samsung so this may be the "killer application" that propels graphene into the mainstream.

For some reason MSM has been running stories (let's give it a name, "MSM Doom Porn", where the MSM tries to incite FUD with a sense of doom!) about water purity and low supplies. Over on the OTEC thread clean water is an outcome of using that tech. Excess electricity from a fusion reactor is also talked about being used for desalination. Wonder why these solutions to a non-issue (unless you believe the MSM Doom Porn) are floating around?

Perhaps graphene to the rescue!

US company Nanomedical Diagnostics has worked with MEMS foundry Rogue Valley Microdevices to deliver what is said to be the first mass produced graphene based biosensor.

Called the AGILE R100, the benchtop device is designed to provide biophysical data to pharmaceutical and biotherapeutics companies seeking more informed decisions earlier in the drug discovery process.

Newelectronics.co.uk, March 9, 2017 - First mass produced graphene based biosensor claimed.

This really is news! The graphene is connected to a device that detects changes in conductance as materials are placed upon it which determines the interactions happening! That is pretty cool use of graphene! It is like the first “portable calculators” that were the size of a large man’s hand, twice as thick, could only do simple maths, and cost hundreds of dollars! Now they are solar powered, as thin as a credit card, and given away for free! Could this be the first-gen tricorder? One can wish…

The thing that stands out is that this device is going to be mass produced. So somebody has figured out to make graphene in purity, size, and volume to make such a biosensor possible. It is targeted for drug development (go figure!) but they have designed DNA sequence readers using graphene. If the two are combine (or heck, even used sequentially!) then one day, drugs could be tailor made for your DNA! But for now, this is really good news to keep harmful interactions from even making it to trial.

When powered, positive lithium ions are naturally attracted to the negative ions on the opposite side and they move to it.

Eventually the negative electrode becomes so saturated with positive ions that it can’t fit any more into it, and so the battery runs out of charge.

To recharge, an electric current is passed through the current collectors to force the positive electrodes back to the other side.

A simpler solution

The 3D printed disc electrodes demonstrated in this paper simplify this Li-ion setup as they don’t require a current collector. They also don’t require further post production or curing after printing.

3D disc electrodes (3DEs) are 3D printed in graphene laced BlackMagic3D filament from Graphene 3D Lab Inc.

3Dprintingindustry.com, news, March 9, 2017 - Graphene PLA 3D printed to make rechargeable batteries.

The article lists the team then says, "demonstrates the use of graphene based PLA to make energy storage devices" which is the main point of the article. So if you are not familiar with 3D printing, PLA is "thermoplastic" which is heated up, melts, then is layered (the term is "additive" as in "additive manufacturing" the technical name for 3D printing) to create a structure. In this case, the PLA is laced with graphene.

In terms of this 3DE being used as a Li-ion anode and a solid-state supercapacitor the authors understand that the output is not highly competitive with current literature, however one must consider that in reality this anode/supercapacitor is comprised of only 8% graphene and 92% thermoplastic (PLA), and yet, still works as a battery anode/supercapacitor material! It should be noted that future work will examine a range of percentages and bespoke architectural structures.

(same source, quoting paper from the research team)

This is being used in a lithium ion battery (seems it might be very similar to a supercapacitor that charges quickly and discharges quickly instead of a steady release like a battery would). The overall amount of graphene is pretty amazing: 8% is not very much! And it is suspended in plastic. Maybe some other material can be used in the anode (??) to further enhance overall charge density. Seems that is their next step to see what ratios work best. I am certain other materials may be tried out.

While not a graphene battery, this is good stuff! 3D printing parts would lead to a reduced cost in manufacturing which means lower overall costs. Meanwhile, **tapping foot** I'm still waiting on that graphene battery!

Grafoid Inc., a Kingston-located graphene R&D, investment and technology licensing company, announced this week the development of a nano-porous membrane that can extend battery life in next generation Lithium-ion battery applications.
...
Grafoid’s new technology diffuses only “energy harvesting monovalent ions” such as Lithium and Sodium ions (Li+, Na+), protecting sensitive electrode materials from unwanted chemical species – a feature conventional battery membranes do not have.

KingstonHerald.com, March 16, 2017 - GRAFOID Announces New Technology to Extend Battery Life.

Again, not a battery but a battery upgrade. The membrane uses graphene to selectively allow through ions while keeping other unwanted ions out (in the electrolyte). This protects the anode during multiple cycles (charging and discharging).

Grafoid has been busy and offers 6 other graphene enhanced membrane for various uses including water filtering. Glad to see this enhancement on current tech! A good use for graphene and while not the "killer app" it is a nice step towards the graphene future.

Dotz Nano, a company that capitalizes on the technological innovation in the Advanced Materials industry, announces the world's largest shipment of Graphene Quantum Dots (GQDs) for commercial use. GQDs are a new, advanced, high tech material that has unique properties for use in the optical, electronic, imaging, bio-med and optical brightener markets. The natural nano material can be used to brighten and illuminate colors in thousands of applications.

...

... GQDs essentially absorb ultraviolet light or energy and release that energy as fluorescence in the seen light spectrum, in colors ranging from blue to red, according to the size of the GQDs.
...

The company strives to produce and supply these high quality GQDs for use in many applications including medical imaging, sensing, consumer electronics, energy storage, solar cells, laundry detergents, paper, anti-counterfeiting, UV taggants and computer data storage.

Printedelectronicsworld.com, March 16, 2017 - First shipment of large quantities of grapheme quantum dots.

This is another "you will not really notice this but it will be everywhere" announcement. GQD fluoresce in the visible spectrum and since these are made from graphene they are not harmful to the body. Some QDs today use cadmium which is toxic. That is one of the uses listed--medical imaging. I wonder if Samsung will be placing an order for their OLED screens? That would be cool! A nice, big, cheep, OLED screen.

The application that sounds intriguing is data storage!

stuff here!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Is there any implied application for GQD's in the manufacture of NON-ELECTRIC household lighting?

Would it be possible to have fixtures that absorb sunlight during the day that release light after sunset...for free?

originally posted by: foxedz27
a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Is there any implied application for GQD's in the manufacture of NON-ELECTRIC household lighting?

Would it be possible to have fixtures that absorb sunlight during the day that release light after sunset...for free?

Lol one photonic capacitor coming right up.

a reply to: foxedz27
a reply to: Jukiodone

Hum? Like a battery of some sorts? I think GQDs could be used in a solar cell. Hook that up to a flow battery and there you go! Night lights that last you for the rest of your life!

I don't know how efficient the GQDs are so not sure how much light one would get out or for how long. The light bulb was (is?!!) supposed to last a decade (one of the selling points) so the narrow gap of GQDs should be as long. I'm not sure what other use these will be used for but since they are not harmful (made of metals) to humans I am sure they will be used anywhere they can find a use.

I was pretty sure that graphene packaging was going to be a big thing but haven't heard a peep since last year. Weird?! Figured electronics would be a perfect match for waterproof packing materials. But it has gone kind of quiet. So the GQDs taking the spotlight is unexpected. And in quantity. Strangeness abounds!