Wonder Material



Researchers have been successfully able to devise out a material which can really be considered to be a wonder in the field of material science. We are talking about Graphene which has grabbed the attention of developers worldwide, thanks to its extraordinary properties and diverse range of applications.


Graphene, a sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb-like lattice just one atom thick has trumped Bucky balls and nanotubes to become the king of carbon nanomaterials. Since its discovery just a few years ago, this “wonder material” has wowed researchers with record-breaking electronic and mechanical properties. According to recent studies, graphene is not only the strongest material ever measured, but also the stiffest, and its current density– a measure of the density of flow of charged carrier particles – is a million times that of copper. But graphene is much more than just a scientific curiosity: it boasts a growing list of real-world applications which include: -

·        Automobile Applications

  Graphene will replace the use of carbon fibre because of its high strength and also it is 20% lighter then carbon fibre and recently BAC has partnered with hay dale composites solutions to become the first manufacturer in the word.

·        Hydrogen Storage

Vehicles and other systems powered by hydrogen have the advantage of emitting only water as a waste product. An important challenge, however, is storing enough hydrogen onboard a car so that it can travel as far as a vehicle powered by fossil fuels Scientists from the NIST Center for Neutron Research in the US have made graphene-oxide frameworks that can hold hydrogen effectively.

·        More efficient Solar cells

Combining graphene with special metallic nanostructures could lead to better solar cells and optical communications systems.

·        Security Applications

Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley in the US have found a way to adjust the amount of light absorbed by graphene at terahertz frequencies. Terahertz radiation is useful for detecting items such as concealed weapons andexplosives because it passes through clothing and packaging but is strongly absorbed by metals and other inorganic substances.

 ·        Futuristic Batteries

Researchers at Hong Kong Polytechnic University claim to have invented a new kind of graphene-based “battery” that runs solely on ambient heat. The device is said to capture the thermal energy of
ions in a solution and convert it into electricity.

·        Optical applications


A tiny bubble of graphene can be used to make an optical lens with an adjustable focal length.

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