New Graphene Material is Paper-Thin and Ten Times Stronger Than Steel

[Ares]

<img src="http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/flexible-gp-sample2.jpeg"/>

Researchers at the University of Technology Sydney have created a new material that is lighter, less dense, harder, and stronger than steel. But this material isn’t one of those breakthroughs that only sounds good on paper. It is paper, and it could be a game-changer for materials science if it can live up to researchers’ hopes.

This graphene paper is constructed of graphite reformed by chemical processes into monolayer hexagonal carbon lattices stacked as thin as a sheet of paper, and it is remarkably strong. To quote a press release from UTS:

Compared to steel, the prepared GP is six times lighter, five to six times lower density, two times harder with 10 times higher tensile strength and 13 times higher bending rigidity.

That’s no incremental improvement on the qualities of steel, but a huge leap forward in terms of overall material strength (plus, like paper, it is flexible). And because it is graphene, it is also imbued with some interesting electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties.

But perhaps best of all, graphene paper not outrageously difficult or expensive to manufacture, and as such it could have huge implications for the aviation and automotive industries, where manufacturers have already been turning to composites and carbon fiber materials to cut weight and thus increase fuel economies.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-04/new-graphene-material-paper-thin-and-ten-times-stronger-steel

[osoab]

30-40 yrs to get into common production maybe if ever at all? Too much money is being made in the current industry imo.

I read about glassy metal 6 years ago. Still waiting to see some type of mass use.

Here is an article from this January. It's not very in depth.

Glassy Metal Set to Rival Steel (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=glassy-metal-set-to-rival-steel)

[Eyebone]

Graphene is an allotrope of carbon, whose structure is one-atom-thick planar sheets of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice.

The term graphene was coined as a combination of graphite and the suffix -ene by Hanns-Peter Boehm, who described single-layer carbon foils in 1962.

Graphene is most easily visualized as an atomic-scale chicken wire made of carbon atoms and their bonds. The crystalline or "flake" form of graphite consists of many graphene sheets stacked together.

The carbon-carbon bond length in graphene is about 0.142 nanometers.

Graphene sheets stack to form graphite with an interplanar spacing of 0.335 nm, which means that a stack of 3 million sheets would be only one millimeter thick. Graphene is the basic structural element of some carbon allotropes including graphite, charcoal, carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. It can also be considered as an indefinitely large aromatic molecule, the limiting case of the family of flat polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2010 was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene".

Yeah thats clear.

I suspect the description "paper" is misleading.

I make "paper", as a hobby.

The process probably involves volatile chemicals so home made "Graphene Paper" is probably not possible.

Still, something to keep an "Eye" on.

[BabushkaLady]

A few years ago I heard about this technology that was going to change the fishing rod industry. They will be able to make the rods flexible and sensitive, but virtually unbreakable. I really think it will be a very slow roll out . . . broken rods create more sales. ;)

[Ponce]

You could make a darn good looking bullet proof coat with this material, bullet proof your car with six pounds, a roof on your house would last about for ever.

[solid]

Exciting, when I read this..my first thoughts were about body armor, bullet proof vests.

edit: Ponce beat me to it, great minds think alike? ;D

[keehah]

Send me a sample and I'll find something to complain about. ;D

Back in my corporate life I helped developed and was technical lead for scale up of a carbon fibre paper for fuel cells.

I'd want all the above properties and high porosity and inexpensive.

Anyway the biggest problem is not performance of a material, it was getting the price down. Get a cheaper carbon tow base paper and paint it with special coatings and treatments. 3M now is one of a few companies selling the stuff.

If I'd stayed in the states I would probably still be working on carbon papers.

[solid]

You could make a darn good looking bullet proof coat with this material, bullet proof your car with six pounds, a roof on your house would last about for ever.


It's funny when you think about it...someone develops something amazing like this, and the first thing we want to do is take it out back and shoot it. See how it handles a bullet. ;D

[gunDriller]

i wonder if we will be talking about the gold-graphene-silver ratio someday.

how much does an ounce of quality graphene cost ?

[keehah]

Good graphite powder (with natural graphenes) can be pretty cheap.

Basically you can dig it out of the ground, heat it in big piles for several days to 'cure' it and drive off some impurities, then screen it for size.

[Santa]

Compared to steel, the prepared GP is six times lighter, five to six times lower density, two times harder with 10 times higher tensile strength and 13 times higher bending rigidity.

That’s no incremental improvement on the qualities of steel, but a huge leap forward in terms of overall material strength (plus, like paper, it is flexible).

How can something have 13 times higher bending rigidity than steel and yet be as bendable as paper?

[keehah]

Its pretty easy to bend a sheet of steel.
As long as its as big and no heavier than a piece of paper. ;)

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcStf9VmjKTD20WsfqLgRWuYozs4QkxKU o1T1qLmE2zVAG7RArN5Jg

[Book]

http://www.energytribune.com/live_images/ET090309_solar.jpg

How soon can GE build a graphene factory in China so our local Wal-Mart can sell us some of this stuff?

:oo-->

[madfranks]

You could make a darn good looking bullet proof coat with this material, bullet proof your car with six pounds, a roof on your house would last about for ever.


Ponce - I'm an architect and this is one of the technologies I've been keeping an eye on for that very reason. As a matter of fact, when I finished up school, I wrote my graduate thesis on the structural properties of sophisticated nano materials and their potential architectural applications, and this was one of them. Not only for roofing, but structural materials as well (reinforcing bars, cables, etc). I did a design of a small office building using a transparent nano material where one facade of the entire building was one unbroken transparent panel. It would render the whole side of the building transparent, like one big window, and the material itself handled all the structural, thermal, acoustic and weatherproofing needs of an exterior wall. If I ever make my fortune some day it will be through these materials.

[Ponce]

If they ever come out, I seen many new ideas in the developing stages from ten years ago that I have never seen ever again anywhere.

[Santa]

Its pretty easy to bend a sheet of steel.
As long as its as big and no heavier than a piece of paper. ;)

Steel is less stiff than aluminum.
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcStf9VmjKTD20WsfqLgRWuYozs4QkxKU o1T1qLmE2zVAG7RArN5Jg


Thanks. Kind of a stupid question. But still... Rigidly bendable? Lol

[keehah]

...where one facade of the entire building was one unbroken transparent panel. It would render the whole side of the building transparent, like one big window, and the material itself handled all the structural, thermal, acoustic and weatherproofing needs of an exterior wall. If I ever make my fortune some day it will be through these materials.

Go big man! But better check out those Tyvek Patents first thing though. Perhaps the best ones have already expired.