You can imagine the graphene been
deposited on an electro polished copper cylinder and been produced continuously
at ambient temperature and pressure. We
are now that close and it looks possible.
Tricky of course, but so was flint knapping the last time I checked.
With this, anything can be tried
and becomes possible. How about a
graphene laminated wing for a new space shuttle? Why not a titanium graphene laminate?
We are definitely on the way to
making the shells used in UFOs or MFEVs.
The application work on graphene
just as a material has barely begun.
Recall that it is unreactive and stronger than diamond and one atom
thick. Producing a continuous ribbon is
now plausible. Such a ribbon can be
rolled up continuously to produce a stiff tight cable. This cable can carry massive power and nicely
replace our high power cables with something much lighter and stronger. While we are at it we may as well stuff a
fiber optic bundle into the core as it is made to add capability.
The same technology produces
cabling able to handle the needs of a sky tether able to lift goods to orbit.
After that let your imaginations
run wild. Rethink everything we make
today.
.
Physicists develop scalable method for making graphene
February 25, 2011 by Evan Lerner
Copper-grown graphene circuits. (Photo: Zhengtang Luo)
(PhysOrg.com) -- New research from the University of Pennsylvania
As explained in a recently published study, a Penn research team was
able to create high-quality graphene that is just a single atom thick over 95%
of its area, using readily available materials and
manufacturing processes that can be scaled up to industrial levels.
“I’m aware of reports of about 90%, so this research is pushing it
closer to the ultimate goal, which is 100%,” said the study’s principal
investigator, A.T. Charlie Johnson, professor of physics. “We have a vision of
a fully industrial process.”
Other team members on the project included postdoctoral fellows
Zhengtang Luo and Brett Goldsmith, graduate students Ye Lu and Luke Somers and
undergraduate students Daniel Singer and Matthew Berck, all of Penn’s
Department of Physics and Astronomy in the School of Arts and Sciences.
The group’s findings were published on Feb. 10 in the journal Chemistry
of Materials.
Graphene is a chicken-wire-like lattice of carbon atoms arranged in
thin sheets a single atomic layer thick. Its unique physical properties,
including unbeatable electrical conductivity, could lead to major advances in
solar power, energy storage, computer memory and a host of other technologies.
But complicated manufacturing processes and often-unpredictable results
currently hamper graphene’s widespread adoption.
Producing graphene at industrial scales isn’t inhibited by the high
cost or rarity of natural resources – a small amount of graphene is likely made
every time a pencil is used – but rather the ability to make meaningful
quantities with consistent thinness.
One of the more promising manufacturing techniques is CVD, or chemical
vapor deposition, which involves blowing methane over thin sheets of metal. The
carbonatoms in methane
form a thin film of graphene on the metal sheets, but the process must be done
in a near vacuum to prevent multiple layers of carbon from accumulating into
unusable clumps.
The Penn team’s research shows that single-layer-thick graphene can be
reliably produced at normal pressures if the metal sheets are smooth enough.
“The fact that this is done at atmospheric pressure makes it possible
to produce graphene at a lower cost and in a more flexible way,” Luo, the
study’s lead author, said.
Whereas other methods involved meticulously preparing custom copper
sheets in a costly process, Johnson’s group used commercially available copper
foil in their experiment.
“You could practically buy it at the hardware store,” Johnson said.
Other methods make expensive custom copper sheets in an effort to get
them as smooth as possible; defects in the surface cause the graphene to
accumulate in unpredictable ways. Instead, Johnson’s group “electropolished”
their copper foil, a common industrial technique used in finishing silverware
and surgical tools. The polished foil was smooth enough to produce single-layer
graphene over 95% of its surface area.
Working with commercially available materials and chemical processes
that are already widely used in manufacturing could lower the bar for
commercial applications.
“The overall production system is simpler, less expensive, and more
flexible” Luo said.
The most important simplification may be the ability to create graphene
at ambient pressures, as it would take some potentially costly steps out of
future graphene assembly lines.
“If you need to work in high vacuum, you need to worry about getting it
into and out of a vacuum chamber without having a leak,” Johnson said. “If
you’re working at atmospheric pressure, you can imagine electropolishing the
copper, depositing the graphene onto
it and then moving it along a conveyor belt to another process in the factory.”
Provided by Pennsylvania
State University
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