Graphene - three problems; one solution

Samuel Overington

2017-04-17T00:00:00.000Z

Table of Contents
Quotes ........................................................................................................................................................................ 2
Notes .......................................................................................................................................................................... 3
What are some practical applications of graphene? ............................................................................... 3
Notes .......................................................................................................................................................................... 3
questions ............................................................................................................................................................. 3
How is graphene made / what are the manufacturing processes of graphene? ..................... 4
Mechanical exfoliation ............................................................................................................................... 4
Atomic force microscopy of graphite................................................................................................... 4
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) ......................................................................................................... 4
growing crystals of graphene starting from a carbon-rich solid, such as sugar ................. 4
Bibliography............................................................................................................................................................ 4

What is so great about graphene, and does it deserve the term super material.
In 2013, the European Commission announced (EuropeanCommision et al., 2013) a one
billion euro research grant from their Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) research
initiative to
In 2013, the European Union made a 1 billion grant to be used for research into potential graphene
applications.[6] In 2013 the Graphene Flagship consortium formed, including Chalmers University of Technology
and seven other European universities and research centers, along with Nokia.

Fascination with this material stems from its remarkable physical properties and the
potential applications these properties offer for the future. Although scientists knew one
atom thick, two-dimensional crystal graphene existed, no-one had worked out how to
extract it from graphite.
Scientists claim that with the advent of graphing the problems faced with energy storage
units has a new solution. The current trend in many manufacturers of technology today is
to create a smaller and thinner devices. This creates a challenge when it comes to powering
the devices. Using a DVD burner UCLA researcher Richard Camara and graduate student
Maha El caddy have developed a groundbreaking technique to produce mid scale
grapheme based super capacitors - Devices that can charge and discharge one hundred to
one thousand times faster than a standard cell battery (El-Kady and Kaner, 2013).
Batteries of today must overcome heat wastage and size problems in order to keep up with
this current trend.
The process of miniaturization often relies on flattening technology, making devices thinner and more like a
geometric plane that has only two dimensions. In developing their new micro-supercapacitor, Kaner and El-Kady
used a two-dimensional sheet of carbon, known as graphene, which only has the thickness of a single atom in the
third dimension.
Kaner and El-Kady took advantage of a new structural design during the fabrication. For any supercapacitor to be
effective, two separated electrodes have to be positioned so that the available surface area between them is
maximized. This allows the supercapacitor to store a greater charge. A previous design stacked the layers of
graphene serving as electrodes, like the slices of bread on a sandwich. While this design was functional, however, it
was not compatible with integrated circuits.
In their new design, the researchers placed the electrodes side by side using an interdigitated pattern, akin to
interwoven fingers. This helped to maximize the accessible surface area available for each of the two electrodes
while also reducing the path over which ions in the electrolyte would need to diffuse. As a result, the new
supercapacitors have more charge capacity and rate capability than their stacked counterparts.

Quotes
That was until it was isolated in 2004 by two researchers at The University of Manchester,
Prof Andre Geim and Prof Kostya Novoselov. This is the story of how that stunning
scientific feat came about and why Andre and Kostya won the Nobel Prize in Physics for
their pioneering work.
Graphene, millions of ultra-thin layers that stack together to form graphite commonly
found in pencils, was first studied as long ago as 1947.
That electric current would be carried by effectively massless charge carriers in graphene
was pointed out theoretically in 1984, and the name 'graphene' was first mentioned in
1987 to describe the graphite layers that had various compounds inserted between them.
The term was used extensively in work on carbon nanotubes, which are rolled up graphene
sheets.
Attempts to grow graphene on other single crystal surfaces have been ongoing since the
1970s, but strong interactions with the surface on which it was grown always prevented
the true properties of graphene being measured experimentally.
Graphene, millions of ultra-thin layers that stack together to form graphite commonly
found in pencils, was first studied as long ago as 1947.
That electric current would be carried by effectively massless charge carriers in graphene
was pointed out theoretically in 1984, and the name 'graphene' was first mentioned in
1987 to describe the graphite layers that had various compounds inserted between them.
The term was used extensively in work on carbon nanotubes, which are rolled up graphene
sheets.
Attempts to grow graphene on other single crystal surfaces have been ongoing since the
1970s, but strong interactions with the surface on which it was grown always prevented
the true properties of graphene being measured experimentally.

Notes
What are the physical properties that make Graphene a super-material, and will this make
it become one of the most used materials of all time?
When we think of the introduction of man made materials where a material is refined
from a raw product, like steel, or plastic, which have become synonymous with almost
every aspect of society. These materials are not found in a natural state, and have been
manufactured. They have arisen from the human need to improve the properties to make
things stronger, lighter etc.
Steel has been manufactured... plastic has been manufactured (to replace rubber) > to fill
the whole in a the manufacturing of products that required a new type of substance with
physical properties that weren't at the time available in the materials at the time. For
example, at the time just before plastics were inventented, rubber was used to manufacture
products that required an object to be flexible, water resistant, able to be moulded into a
particular shape (??), and at the time, the material of choice was rubber a natural
inghredient produced from the sap of a rubber tree; which works up to a point, but rubber
also had it's downfalls, like it melted at relatively low temperatures...etc - all properties that
plastics have far surpassed. Of course plastics
In the same respect graphene is an improvement on many of the current materials,

What are some practical applications of graphene?

Notes
questions
1) Questions to jumpstart writing write an essay on the topic graphene and its uses
2) What are some properties of graphene?
3) How is graphene made / what are the manufacturing processes of graphene?
4) What are some practical applications of graphene?
5) What makes graphene a miracle material? (what are the outstanding material
properties that make graphene more suitable than materials in production today)?
6) What is the history of graphene (how was it discovered)?
7) Where / which institutes and universities are the sources of current?
8) How is research for graphene funded today?
9) What are the uses of graphene?
10) What are the current barriers to Graphene production and uses at the moment

How is graphene made / what are the manufacturing processes of

graphene?
There are several methods of manufacturing graphene, described below. So far, scientists
have been unable to create graphene in large quantities at a cost effective price, compared
to the processes involved. This is one of the main reasons that Graphene isn't at a stage
where it is being used in as many manufacturing and proctions as would be ideal... if the
price of manufacturing this wonder material was a cost effective process. These methods
are fine for making tiny test samples of graphene in a laboratory, but there's no way we
could make graphene like this on the kind of industrial scale on which it's likely to be
required. So how do you make lots of graphene?

Mechanical exfoliation
Take a pencil and some sticky tape. Stick the tape to the graphite, peel it away, and you'll
get a layer of graphite made up of multiple layers of carbon atoms. Repeat the process very
carefully, over and over again, and you'll (hopefully) end up with carbon so thin that it'll
contain just one layer of atoms. That's your graphene! This rather crude method goes by
the technical name of mechanical exfoliation

Atomic force microscopy of graphite

An alternative method involves loading up a super-precise atomic force microscope with a
piece of graphite and then rubbing it very precisely on something so that single layers of
graphene flake off, a bit like graphite from a pencil lead only one layer at a time. Techniques
like this are fiddly and intricate and explain why graphene is currently the most expensive
material on the planet!

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD)

One approach is to put an organic (carbon-based) gas such as methane into a closed
container with something like a piece of copper in the bottom, then monkey with the
temperature and pressure until a layer of graphene is formed on it. Because the graphene is
formed by depositing layers of a chemical from a gas (vapor), this method is called
chemical vapor deposition (CVD)

growing crystals of graphene starting from a carbon-rich solid, such as sugar

.. Another approach involves growing crystals of graphene starting from a carbon-rich
solid, such as sugar.

Bibliography
El-Kady, M. F. & Kaner, R. B. (2013) Scalable fabrication of high-power graphene micro-
supercapacitors for flexible and on-chip energy storage. Nat Commun. [Online] 41475.
EuropeanCommision et al. (2013) Graphene and human brain project win largest research
excellence award in history, as battle for sustained science funding continues. [online].
Available from: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-54_en.htm. [online]. Available
from: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-54_en.htm.