Wouldn't it be nice to be able to make your own graphene? Or is it just me??? lol
A team from England and Ireland, however, reported on Sunday they had used a blender to make microscopic sheets of graphene.
They placed powdered graphite, the stuff from which pencil lead is made, into a container with an "exfoliating liquid", and then mixed at high speed.
The result is miniscule sheets of graphene, each about a nanometre (a billionth of a metre) thick and 100 nanometres long, suspended in a liquid.
The force generated by the rotating blades separated the graphite into graphene layers without damaging their two-dimensional structure.
"We developed a new way of making graphene sheets," Trinity College Dublin chemical physics professor Jonathan Coleman, who co-authored the study in the journal Nature Materials, told AFP.
"This method gives lots of graphene with no defects.
The team used industrial equipment called shear mixers, but successfully repeated the experiment with a kitchen blender.
The liquid so produced can be spread onto surfaces as films of graphene sheets, like paint, or mixed with plastics to produce reinforced, composite materials.
"In the lab, we produced grams. However, when scaled up, tonnes will be produced," said Coleman.
Graphene is the world's thinnest substance, transparent but stronger than steel—a conductive super-material made of carbon just one atom thick.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-04-graphene-kitchen.html#jCp"
(http://cdn4.mos.techradar.futurecdn.net///art/features/graphene-578-80.jpg)
Lots of graphene with no defects! OK..I confess...that makes me happy.
Graphene is a game changer. Luke you NEED lots of graphene! lol
The possibilities...
Cosmo
ok not knowing nothin i say this
if you wanted to go bigger get an old honey extrator and put a motor on it for speed..
i have one but it's not leaving home i might get some honey this year.. but i'm all form repurposeing stuff ..they old ones are cheap..the new ones are stainless and expensive..
just a thought
the ex-foliating liquid used is N-methyl-pyrrolidone ; this does sound interesting...
seeker
Oh yes, we can use lots of this 8)
But where to get that liquid?
With a name like that it sounds highly poisonous :D
I'm off to Ikea to fill my pockets with those free pencils ;)
here ya go..
some of the results from a quick goggle search for N-methyl-pyrrolidone
http://www.lyondellbasell.com/Products/ByCategory/basic-chemicals/PerformanceChemicalsAndSolvents/N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone/
N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone (NMP) is a powerful solvent with broad solubility for resins and high chemical and thermal stability. It is completely soluble with water at all temperatures and is soluble with most organic solvents.
Benefits and Applications
NMP, known for its low toxicity and solvent power, is rapidly becoming the product of choice for paint strippers, agricultural chemicals and process solvent applications. As a cosolvent, NMP can improve the gloss of floor polishes. Because of its high solvency and low volatility, NMP is used in automotive and industrial cleaners with solvents, including hydrocarbons, terpenes, propylene carbonate and propylene glycol ethers. It also has application in the electronic industry as a photoresist stripper. NMP can also be a replacement for 1,1,1-tricholoroethane (111T) in demanding applications, including the cleaning of metal parts. It is recyclable by distillation, readily biodegradable and essentially non-toxic to aquatic life. It is not on the Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) list of the U.S. 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments.
Because of its exceptional performance and relatively low toxicity, NMP is the leading substitute for methylene chloride in paint strippers, graffiti removers and other products for consumer and industrial cleanup. NMP can be used safely and effectively in all its current applications when used with appropriate personal protective equipment.
Storage and Handling
NMP is hygroscopic (picks up moisture), but stable under normal conditions. It will violently react with strong oxidizers such as hydrogen peroxide, nitric acid, sulfuric acid, etc. The primary decomposition products produce carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide fumes. Excessive exposure or spillage should be avoided as a matter of good practice. Lyondell recommends wearing butyl gloves when using NMP.
NMP should be stored in clean, mild phenolic-lined steel or alloy drums. Teflon and Kalrez have been shown to be suitable gasket materials.
Teflon and Kalrez are registered trademarks of E.I. duPont de Nemours and Company.
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[PDF] N-Methylpyrrolidone (NMP) N-Methylpyrrolidone (NMP) - California ...
www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/hesis/Documents/nmp.pdf ? N-Methylpyrrolidone (NMP) harms the developing fetus when tested in pregnant
animals. It is toxic to the reproductive system of male and female test animals.
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Heck Cosmo that is pretty cool! 8)
It would be very cool if someone could get this process down pat. ;)
Yes it is, i'm sure i could do it, but noooo time, nooo money etc :(
At least we can research all there is on it, & post it here for future reference.
They have also managed to make semiconducting graphene, it has extra atoms of something-or-other sticking out on one side. Rolled up graphene becomes carbon nanotube transistors 8)
All going too fast for me, i haven't exhausted coils & magnets yet :P need another 100 years at least ::)
Quote from: PlaysWithMachines on April 22, 2014, 08:31:31 PM
Yes it is, i'm sure i could do it, but noooo time, nooo money etc :(
At least we can research all there is on it, & post it here for future reference.
They have also managed to make semiconducting graphene, it has extra atoms of something-or-other sticking out on one side. Rolled up graphene becomes carbon nanotube transistors 8)
All going too fast for me, i haven't exhausted coils & magnets yet :P need another 100 years at least ::)
Ah yes...what we could accomplish with substantial resources! Let us manifest that!
(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQlPDbbKznxsBvujaK1IPYqS-GU9BiuLefk0AWEr_EpUTuLXtqu)
207 million $$$
Good info on the solvent Sky.
Here are some recent GRAPHENE developments...
High-performance, low-cost ultracapacitors built with graphene and carbon nanotubes...
"In our lab we developed an approach by which we can obtain both single-walled carbon nanotubes and graphene, so we came up with the idea to take advantage of the two promising carbon nanomaterials together," added Michael Keidar, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at GW, and director of the Micro-propulsion and Nanotechnology Laboratory.
The combination device's specific capacitance, a measurement of the performance of a capacitor per unit of weight, was three times higher than the specific capacitance of a device made from carbon nanotubes alone.
http://phys.org/news/2014-04-high-performance-low-cost-ultracapacitors-built-graphene.html#jCp
GRAPHENE....trans-formative technolody!
Team finds electricity can be generated by dragging saltwater over graphene...
In their experiments, the researchers placed single drops of sea water (and other ionic solutions) on top of strips of monolayer graphene and then dragged them around. Doing so, they discovered, resulted in the generation of electricity—adding more drops or increasing the velocity of dragging increased the voltage.
Using the newly discovered technique to generate electricity isn't going to become a commercial proposition anytime soon, of course, as there is still the tricky problem of creating mass amounts of graphene at a reasonable price. But if that ever happens, people everywhere could very easily create their own electricity, as it appears the process is exceptionally scalable.
http://phys.org/news/2014-04-team-electricity-saltwater-graphene.html#jCp
The tricky problem they say, is creating mass amounts of graphene. Well...the previous article about making large quantities with a blender solves that problem!
I wonder about the electrogravitic applications...
Cosmo
Yes, i'm wondering if they can make an exceptional dielectric from this. I would think so.
The strongest dielectric i know of is Barium Hafnium Titanate, all very expensive, Hafnium is about as common as rocking horse poop. This could be a cheap alternative, and could be worked into the hull of a craft 8)
I doubt it can be used as a dielectric as the article says its highly conductive.maybe a capacitor plate with barium as the insulator.
NRL Researchers Create First Homoepitaxial Graphene Tunnel Barrier/Transport Channel Device
(http://www.nrl.navy.mil/PressReleases/2014/tunnel-device-structure_6-14r_744x262.jpg)
A schematic (left) and an optical image (right) of one of the homoepitaxial fluorinated graphene/graphene spin valve devices. The top layer of graphene is used as a tunnel barrier. It is fluorinated to decouple it from the bottom layer of graphene, which is the spin transport channel. Ferromagnetic permalloy (NiFe - red) contacts inject and detect the spin in the channel. The gold contacts are ohmic reference contacts (Ti/Au). The scale bar on the microscope image is 20 microns.
(Photo: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have created a new type of tunnel device structure in which the tunnel barrier and transport channel are made of the same material, graphene. They show that dilutely fluorinated graphene, a single atomic layer of carbon atoms arranged in a two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb array, acts as a tunnel barrier on another layer of graphene for charge and spin transport. They demonstrate tunnel injection through the fluorinated graphene, and lateral transport and electrical detection of pure spin current in the graphene channel. They further report the highest spin injection values yet measured for graphene, providing evidence for the enhancement of tunnel spin polarization theoretically predicted to occur for certain ferromagnetic metals on graphene. This discovery opens an entirely new avenue for making highly functional, scalable graphene-based electronic and spintronic devices a reality. The research results are reported in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications on January 21, 2014.
The coupled imperatives for reduced heat dissipation and power consumption in high-density electronics have rekindled interest in devices based on tunneling, a quantum mechanical phenomenon in which electrons transit through a potential barrier rather than going over it. Because the tunnel barrier and transport channel are typically very different materials, such devices require mating dissimilar materials, raising issues of heteroepitaxy, layer uniformity, interface stability and electronic defect states that severely complicate fabrication and compromise performance.
"2D materials such as graphene and hexagonal boron nitride obviate these issues and offer a new paradigm for tunnel barriers", explains Dr. Berend Jonker, Senior Scientist and project leader. In bulk form, these materials are comprised of well-defined layers which exhibit very strong atomic bonding in-plane, but relatively weak bonding between the layers, known as van der Waals bonding. Single layers can be readily separated from the bulk, or grown directly over large areas by a variety of techniques. These layers thus have a strong tendency to be very uniform in thickness down to a single atom, have very few defects, and do not intermix readily with other materials—these are key characteristics for a tunnel barrier, in which the tunnel current depends exponentially on the barrier thickness.
The NRL scientists fluorinate the top layer of a graphene bilayer to decouple it from the bottom layer, so that it serves as a single-monolayer tunnel barrier for both charge and spin injection into the lower graphene channel. They deposit ohmic (gold) and ferromagnetic permalloy (red) contacts as shown in the figure, forming a non-local spin valve structure. When a bias current is applied between the left two contacts, a spin-polarized charge current tunnels from the permalloy into the graphene transport channel, generating a pure spin current that diffuses to the right. This spin current is detected as a voltage on the right permalloy contact that is proportional to the degree of spin polarization and its orientation. The vectorial character of spin (compared to the scalar character of charge) provides additional mechanisms for the control and manipulation needed for advanced information processing.
The NRL team demonstrated the highest spin injection efficiency ever measured for graphene (63%), and determined spin lifetimes with the Hanle effect. In contrast with most oxide tunnel barriers on graphene, fluorinated graphene provides much larger tunnelling spin polarization efficiency, attributed to interface spin filtering and a more uniform, well-controlled barrier, and allows the observation of the theoretically predicted Hanle voltage and spin lifetime on gate voltage.
These results identify a new route towards high quality, next generation graphene electronic/spintronic devices including spin-based transistors, logic, and memory. In addition, the process is completely scalable and easily accomplished. "In the near future," predicts Dr. Adam Friedman, lead author on the project, "We will be able to write entire spintronic circuits in situ on grown, large areas of bilayer graphene simply by selectively chemically modifying the top layer of graphene." Fluorographene/graphene enables realization of homoepitaxial few-layer carbon structures for versatile electronic devices.
The NRL research team includes Dr. Adam Friedman, Dr. Olaf van 't Erve, Dr. Connie Li, and Dr. Berend Jonker from the Materials Science and Technology Division and Dr. Jeremy Robinson from the Electronics Science and Technology Division.
http://www.nrl.navy.mil/media/news-releases/2014/nrl-researchers-create-first-homoepitaxial-graphene-tunnel-barrier-transport-channel-device
Graphene and the Future of Nanoelectronics
What Is It?
Graphene is a single atomic layer of carbon arranged into a hexagonal crystal lattice, first isolated (by splitting graphite) and characterized in 2004 by Profs. Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov of the U.K.'s University of Manchester, earning them the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.
How Does It Work?
Since 2004, researchers have uncovered many of the unusual and superlative properties of graphene:
1 - It has the highest electron and hole mobility of any known material at room temperature.
2 - Its thermal conductivity rivals that of diamond.
3 - Mechanically it is 100 times stronger than steel, while being highly flexible.
4 - Its unique and highly desirable optical properties in broad spectral range, from ultra-violet (UV) to terahertz (THz), are just beginning to be systematically explored.
What Will It Accomplish?
1 - Ultra low power, flexible electronic devices operating at terahertz (THz) frequencies and above
2 - High-speed and highly sensitive infrared photodetectors
3 - THz laser emitters and modulation devices
4 - Ultra-compact plasmonic devices and circuits that combine electronics and optics on the same chip
5 - All of these will enable revolutionary warfighting capabilities
http://www.onr.navy.mil/en/Media-Center/Fact-Sheets/Graphene.aspx
NRL Scientists Demonstrate Infrared Light Modulation With Graphene
(http://www.nrl.navy.mil/PressReleases/2013/117-13r_graphene_phasing_722x378.jpg)
Phase and amplitude modulation of light by a single sheet of graphene.
Research scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Electronics Science and Technology Division in collaboration with researchers at University at Buffalo-The State University of New York (SUNY) demonstrate the possibility for new optical devices using graphene for communications, imaging, and signal processing.
graphene modulationPhase and amplitude modulation of light by a single sheet of graphene.
(Photo: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)
NRL research in the development of future optoelectronic devices demonstrates infrared light modulation with graphene with the impact for high-speed phase and amplitude modulators from the mid-infrared to terahertz (THz) wavelengths. The results of this work open the possibility for new optical devices using graphene for communications, imaging, and signal processing.
"The realization of a tunable graphene polarizer has the potential to greatly enhance current infrared polarization modulation devices that are crucial to molecular sensing and identification, also playing a key role in infrared free space communications," said Dr. Joseph Tischler, research physicist, NRL Solid Sate Devices Branch.
Although graphene has generated considerable interest since its discovery due to its remarkable properties that led to the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010, one of its properties has been overseen. Electrons in graphene—in the presence of a magnetic field—can strongly change light intensity (amplitude modulation) or rotate the light polarization (phase modulation).
Electrons in graphene rotate in quantized circular orbits under a magnetic field in the so-called Landau Levels. Light will excite these electrons from one orbit to another and the electrons, behaving as if they are moving at the speed of light, will re-emit this light with a different amplitude and/or polarization.
"Although we have controlled this effect with an external magnetic field, the same can be done by changing the amount of electrons with a gate and keeping the magnetic field constant. This would allow for fast modulation, possibly reaching terahertz speeds," added Dr. Chase Ellis, National Research Council postdoctoral, NRL Solid State Devices Branch.
Aside from the technological impact of this work, the group has developed a non-invasive, ultrasensitive 'fingerprinting' tool. This tool allows for the use of new analysis techniques and identification and characterization of different graphene multilayers by measuring the polarization of reflected light from graphene in a magnetic field, even if they are covering up one another.
This work successfully tested three different theories predicting rich properties for single and multilayer graphene and determined important parameters characterizing multilayer graphene, some of which had never been measured before.
http://www.nrl.navy.mil/media/news-releases/2013/nrl-scientists-demonstrate-infrared-light-modulation-with-graphene
NRL Scientists Push and Pull Droplets with Graphene
(http://www.nrl.navy.mil/PressReleases/2013/liquid-drop-on-graphene_80-13r_625x309.jpg)
Schematic representation of a liquid drop moving across a chemically graded graphene surface and still pictures of the droplet motion for water on an oxygen gradient.
(Photo: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have moved liquid droplets using long chemical gradients formed on graphene. The change in concentration of either fluorine or oxygen formed using a simple plasma-based process either pushes or pulls droplets of water or nerve agent simulant across the surface. This new achievement offers potential applications ranging from electronics to mechanical resonators to bio/chemical sensors.
Image of liquid drop moving across chemically graded graphene surfaceSchematic representation of a liquid drop moving across a chemically graded graphene surface and still pictures of the droplet motion for water on an oxygen gradient.
(Photo: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)
NRL scientists have shown that it is possible to create a chemical gradient on graphene, which pushes or pulls small drops of liquid. Gradients in the wettability of a material are widely found in nature, such as the famous lotus-leaf effect or in spider webs. Researchers who study these effects have found that to be useful, the gradient must be especially smooth without defects that can snag the water droplet. The effect has been achieved before with large molecules or polymers but not with graphene—a layer of carbon only a single atom thick. The chemical flexibility of that carbon enabled both oxygen and fluorine gradients to be created. The mechanical strength of graphene means that these graphene backed chemical gradients could be transferred to many different surfaces. Combined, these advantages provide potential breakthroughs in device design for applications ranging from microfluidics to sensing. The research appears in the June 25, 2013, issue of the journal ACS Nano [DOI: 10.1021/nn401274e].
Creating the chemical gradients requires a delicate touch. While graphene is a robust material, it is still only an atom thick—a too-energetic reaction can rip it apart. The ideal solution was to use an NRL-patented plasma processing technology that can produce the necessary wafer-scale chemical patterns when combined with a physical mask. Here, the mask was a canopy that hung over the graphene, but only partially protected it from the plasma. Moving the canopy higher or making it longer creates different gradients, which are clean and smooth without any additional processing steps.
"The beauty of this approach is the ability to rapidly produce chemical gradients of a desired scale or build arrays of multiple gradients over large surface areas. This combination is very desirable when one considers the large-scale fabrication of devices," said Scott Walton, head of the Plasma Applications Section at NRL. "An interesting property of graphene is that it can be transferred to many different substrates," notes co-author Paul Sheehan, of NRL's Chemistry Division. "In principle, one could create this chemical gradient on many different substrates, something which has been hard to date."
The research team produced and tested two different chemical gradients and then tested them using two liquids, water and dimethyl-methylphosphonate (a nerve agent simulant). For both liquids, a gradient of oxygen functional groups pulled the liquid drops towards increasing oxygen concentration. A fluorine gradient did just the opposite, pushing the droplet towards decreasing fluorine. The direction of motion is broadly attributed to shifts in the surface energy on the functionalized
(http://www.nrl.navy.mil/PressReleases/2013/nerve-agent-simulant-on-graphene_80-13r_496x746.jpg)
This graph shows the contact angles of 1 ?L drops of (A) water and (B) dimethyl-methylphosphonate (a nerve agent simulant) on pristine and chemically modified graphene surfaces.
(Photo: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)
Looking forward, the group believes the chemical gradients could be used to propel smaller droplets and perhaps even single molecules. The ability to move liquids or adsorbates across the surface provides additional capabilities in device design for applications ranging from microfluidics to chemical sensing. "Well-controlled surface modifications provide the ability to manipulate the material attributes locally, individually addressing the sensory and transducing components of a hybrid material, which offer a range of opportunities in a variety of applications," says Sandra Hernandez, the NRC-NRL postdoctoral research associate who designed, fabricated, and characterized the gradients. "You can imagine these films helping to decontaminate a building or clothes by pulling the agent towards an absorber or a catalyst that breaks them down," adds Dr. Sheehan. "Alternately, it could act like a radar dish for a sensor by pulling all the agents in a large area towards a small, low power sensor."
The research is a collaboration among scientists in the Plasma Physics, Chemistry, and Electronics Science & Technology Divisions at the Naval Research Laboratory and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Other members of the research team include: Charlee J. C. Bennett, Chad E. Junkermeier, Stanislav D. Tsoi, Francisco J. Bezares, Rory Stine, Jeremy T. Robinson, Evgeniya H. Lock, David R. Boris, Brian D. Pate, Joshua D. Caldwell, and Thomas L. Reinecke.
http://www.nrl.navy.mil/media/news-releases/2013/nrl-scientists-push-and-pull-droplets-with-graphene
I thought the first article said 10x but zorgons article says 100x.
Anyways.so if you grind this stuff up.then you strip the detergent using Ethel alcohol.then evaporate.pour it in a plastic cake pan.put electrodes on two ends of the pan.then put a current through it.this should cause the carbon atoms to align and bond.this should create some badass body armor.just turn the cake pan upside down and out pops a plate.
Large sheets of GRAPHENE!
A new way to make sheets of graphene:
Now researchers at MIT and the University of Michigan have come up with a way of producing graphene, in a process that lends itself to scaling up, by making graphene directly on materials such as large sheets of glass. The process is described, in a paper published this week in the journal Scientific Reports, by a team of nine researchers led by A. John Hart of MIT. Lead authors of the paper are Dan McNerny, a former MIT postdoc who is now at Michigan, and Viswanath Balakrishnan, a former MIT postdoc who is now at the Indian Institute of Technology.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-05-sheets-graphene.html#jCp
(http://cdn.phys.org/newman/gfx/news/2014/1-anewwaytomak.jpg)
:) doesn't take much to make me happy!
Cosmo