Lunes, Marso 10, 2014

4 Things You Didn’t Know About Graphene - Individual Project

by Erwin Dennis Umali | 2010 - 23119 | Individual Project | STS THY 2013-2014

When I tell you paper is a three dimensional object, three outcomes can happen. One is that you’d reject my statement and refute that something that thin cannot be three dimensional. I would then rebut by telling your arse to study basic physics more, and pull out the second outcome, that you’d have to agree with me -- because, while very small, paper does have thickness, duh. Third would be that you won’t care, but I’d have given you a paper cut by then so that shouldn’t matter.

So now let me present to you graphene, a material that excited the modern world so much that it was involved in frickin’ investment scams. But hey! you ask -- what does paper have to do with this material that sounds like a knockoff pencil lead substitute? Well…

4. Graphene is truly 2D


That’s right -- this thing is two dimensional. Like, how do you consider something as ‘two dimensional’? It has to look like this:

Pictured: not a game of Civilization on lowest settings.
Graphene is a carbon allotrope, which is a fancy way of saying that elements have relatives. Strictly speaking, allotropes have the same number of elementary particles, but they’re arranged differently, like how all K’Nex creations are basically K’Nex products, but arranged differently.

Art. Also, still K’Nex.
So then you have this 3D carbon K’Nex formation called graphite. Scientists thought, hey, maybe we can slice this graphite thinner and thinner! Scientists at the University of Manchester finally got it so thin that the interconnected carbon atoms look like chicken wire (by the way, that’s what it’s totally called). And when you have a single layer of atoms, you can’t really get much thinner than that. Hence, 2D.
Imagine this as K’Nex models. Different, but the same. Art.
So then that’s why the pencil in your pocket and the diamond ring in the boutique you’re about to rob can both be called ‘carbon’. You’d probably rob a phone, too, you thieving bastard, so you can possibly add that phone’s electronics as ‘carbon’ as well.

3. Graphene has amazing properties


Graphene had predicted as early as the 1980s to have interesting properties, but it was only until they produced the material in 2004 that verified how awesome graphene was. Like, ball-crushingly awesome.
Let the imagery sink in.
One of its properties is that it’s pretty fucking transparent -- since, you know, it’s pretty damn thin. Another is that it’s pretty fucking good at letting electrons flow through it -- so good, in fact, that it nears superconductivity levels, even at room temperature. That’s like going full Flash without the suit, and without the need to be Flash. Which is awesome.
That’s not all. Graphene is so durable and flexible, it makes kevlar blush. A single square meter sheet of graphene, weighing less than a feather, can support 4 kilograms. A bar made of the thing can support 100 times more pressure than a steel equivalent. Suddenly, orbital elevators don’t sound like coffee table science fiction any more -- because they’re actually already thinking about it.
And still, that’s not all. Again, due to its unique atomic structure, it can act as a pretty damn good water distiller. You can use it to easily filter salt water, for crying out loud.
Lookin’ pretty slick now, K’Nex.

So now you’ve got a material that is transparent, conducts electrons like nothing else before it, ungodly durable and flexible, and can even filter our most valued resource. Wow, it’s like...

2. Graphene can change everything


We’re in the future, kids. I mean, holy cow, you can now make transparent tech stuff. Imagine -- every screen can now actually have wires you can’t see. Suddenly, things like transparent smartphones can become more than just CG mock ups people seem to believe all the time.
The future is staring at glossy glass and smearing oil all over it.
And it’s not just in phones or screens; You can even use graphene to superpower other parts of circuits. Graphene with a capacitor? You get a ‘supercapacitor’ that can charge in seconds and provide hours of power. Too high-end? How about graphene with a battery? You get more long-lasting batteries, and, you get noticeable gains in battery quality wherever you put the material.
How about solar panels? Yup, you can totally use graphene, since it’s, you know, transparent and conducts electricity like a boss. What about chip components? Silicon and Moore’s Law can bid itself goodbye -- since 2D carbon lattices are much more compact than silicon, engineers can now theoretically create chipsets one atom layer at a time, making for some extremely small chip components.
And again, as mentioned before, it’s the modern age’s steel on steroids, and a miracle water distiller. What more can you ask for?
K’Nex graphene art?
What’s the catch?
It’s expensive and difficult to make. Only square centimeters of the stuff’s been made, through some interesting techniques, like, actually slicing graphite until it’s thin enough, which is as sophisticated as your mom slicing you a thin layer of cheese.
Cheese would arguably be more delicious.

But, as with other awesome things, eventually you’ll start seeing graphene in more stuff around you, right? I mean, c’mon, the proponents of graphene won a Nobel Prize in 2010, even though nothing substantial has been built out of it yet!
Sadly, that’s not yet the case -- many agree that it would take a few more years before mass production becomes feasible.
But you can help! Just invest a few thousand dollars to this unknown company and we’ll ensure the future of graphene in all things digital!
… What?

1. Graphene is so awesome, people are getting fooled


This shouldn’t surprise you; if someone showed you the technological era’s equivalent of gold, with the promise that it would become ‘big’, wouldn’t you want to ride that wave? Yes? Great! Now, sign these papers, and make sure to get ten more to sign up, and let them do that, too!
Investment scams are sprouting across the UK, and financial regulators have already issued warnings. Apparently, scammers are instilling fear that this revolutionary material would get sacked if it weren’t invested with enough. I mean, seriously? Something this big to be discontinued? Now that you’ve learned quite a few things about this two-dimensional wonder, don’t be swayed by tomfoolery like this. With something this revolutionary, encompassing technology, engineering, and even health and medicine, rest assured it’ll be at the palm of your hands in the near future.
Oh, I am not affiliated with K’Nex in any way.



Images used are copyright to their owners, and duly referenced. This writeup is for educational, non-profit purposes only. Writing style deliberately mimics the article style of Cracked.



References:
Anonymous, 2004. Graphene. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene. February 10, 2014.
Templeton, Graham, 2013. Geek Answers: What is graphene, and why does it matter? Geek Newsletter. http://www.geek.com/science/geek-answers-what-is-graphene-1575393/. March 8, 2014.
Anonymous. The Story of Graphene. University of Manchester website. http://www.graphene.manchester.ac.uk/story/. March 8, 2014.
Casey, Tina, 2013. Graphene At Play In New 300-Mile EV Battery. CleanTechnica. http://cleantechnica.com/2013/11/20/graphene-boosts-ev-battery-range-to-magic-300-mile-number/. March 6, 2014.
Casserly, Martyn, 2013. Graphene battery tech: charge your smartphone in 20 seconds. TechAdvisor. http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/features/tech-industry/3453389/graphene-batteries-what-you-need-know/. March 6, 2014.
Anonymous, 2013. Graphene Supercapacitors Ready for Electric Vehicle Energy Storage, Say Korean Engineers. MIT Technology Review.  http://www.technologyreview.com/view/521651/graphene-supercapacitors-ready-for-electric-vehicle-energy-storage-say-korean-engineers/. March 7, 2014.
Sterling, Bruce, 2014. Graphene water distillation. Wired: Beyond the Beyond. http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2014/03/graphene-water-distillation/. March 8, 2014.
Eley, Jonathan, 2013. UK regulator warns on graphene ‘investment’ schemes. Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ad97e670-7077-11e3-9ba1-00144feabdc0.html. March 8. 2014.
Stoye, Emma, 2014. Warning over graphene investment scams. Chemistry World. http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2014/01/fca-warning-graphene-investment-scam. March 5, 2014.

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