When we talk about graphene the first thing that usually comes to mind is batteries and EVs so I thought it worth while posting some other ways that graphene is going to effect our lives in the future.
Antibiotics
Graphene oxide, a form of graphene with molecular oxygen incorporated into it, wraps around bacteria, puncturing its membrane. With a burst membrane, bacteria die or are unable to reproduce.
Coating surgical tools with this carbon-based compound could kill bacteria, reducing the need for antibiotics, decreasing the rates of post-operative infections and speeding recovery times.
Camera Lenses
Researchers have developed a 3-D printer that could spray graphene oxide solution onto a surface to create a lens 300 times thinner than a sheet of paper.
They then used lasers to etch three concentric rings on the graphene oxide lens to bounce light to an exceptionally narrow focus. It allows a detailed view of objects as small as 200 nanometres long at wavelengths ranging from visible to near infrared.
While we're probably not going to see the lenses in smartphones any time soon, the team is working with the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation to integrate them into nanosatellites – tiny satellites weighing a few kilograms.
At the moment, nanosatellite optical lenses weigh a couple of hundred grams. The new lenses developed by the Swinburne group weigh just a microgram. Integrating the lighter lenses with nanosatellites will mean significant launch cost savings as well as better pictures of Earth and space.
Glass-based electronics
Scientists have layered graphene on top of common glass – a scalable and inexpensive process to get graphene into microelectronic and optoelectronic devices.
What's more, they found the sodium in common soda-lime glass, which is used in windows and bottles, "dope" the graphene, boosting the density of electrons, and in turn increased its electronic properties.
Scaling up technology quickly and cheaply is key to getting graphene into touchscreens and flat panel displays. A glass-graphene system, the researchers say, could rise to that challenge.
Solar cells
Who knew moths could inspired scientists to create new solar cells? That's exactly what researchers from the University of Surrey did, nano-patterning the otherwise poorly-absorbant graphene to let it soak up more light.
Because graphene is so thin, it tends to allow loads of light through. This is great for applications that need transparency, such as touchscreens, but not so great for solar cells, which need to absorb as many photons as possible.
"Moths' eyes have microscopic patterning that allows them to see in the dimmest conditions," says senior study author Ravi Silva.
"These work by channelling light towards the middle of the eye, with the added benefit of eliminating reflections, which would otherwise alert predators of their location."
Etching these patterns onto a few layers of graphene boosted absorption from 2-3% to 95% from ultraviolet to the infrared.
Lubricant
Rounding out our list is lubricity. While much research into graphene explores its conductive qualities, a team in at the University of Basel in Switzerland has been exploring its lubricating prowess on a nanometre scale.
In a paper published in Science, they anchored strips of graphene, called nanoribbons, to a sharp tip, and dragged them across a gold surface.
They found almost perfectly frictionless movement.
In future, they write, graphene could be used as a coating on machinery, resulting in almost zero energy loss between moving parts. This would not only inprove energy efficiency, it would extend the life of the equipment.
Looking forward to our first graphite drill results
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