Graphene

Graphene promises to offer the best possible material properties in almost all applications. Such as its extraordinary performance has led many to call it the ‘superlative’ or ‘wonder’ material. 

The Iron and Bronze ages marked the rise of the first urban civilisations.  The Middle ages led to the development of chemistry and the discovery of new elements, but every era has its material.  Steel, plastic, aluminum and silicon were the materials that propelled technological progress in the 20th century. Graphene, the first two-dimensional material ever, has now arrived on the scene and ready to change industrial and scientific paradigms. 

Scientists had previously discovered single-layered carbon structures, such as rolled up sheets of carbon known as nanotubes and hollow balls of carbon commonly called fullerenes or buckeyballs. However few believed that single sheets of carbon could be produced as they were thought to be too unstable. In 2004 Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov took a hunk of graphite and used Scotch tape to peel off layer after layer after layer. Geim and Novoselov then analysed what they had left, and found graphene.

• First 2 Dimensional crystal ever known to us
• Thinnest object ever obtained
• Largest surface area of any material relative to its weight and volume – important thing since chemical reactions occur on the surface of a material
• Lightest material
• Strongest material – harder than diamond and stronger than steel
• Conducts heat and electricity much better than copper
• Transparent material
• Bendable – take any form you want
•  Really stretchy
• Effectively impermeable to other substances
• Gave birth to a new class of crystals that are also just one atom thin and can be shuffled with each other to engineer new materials on demand to meet specific needs of different industries.
• Graphene has the highest known electron mobility (the speed at which electronic information is transmitted by a material)
• It’s a natural product

Mass commercialisation of graphene may still be a few years away until it reaches its full potential, due to a number of product and process obstacles. However Grafoid Inc announced the launch of a trademarked graphene product called MesoGraf™.  This product represents nothing short of the first platform for the industrialisation and commercialisation of graphene. It represents the first tool through which to achieve graphene’s potential, bridging the gap between the growing bodies of graphene research with actual commercialisation of the material, essentially making the science available to the market. Until now, graphene has been limited to development and study in the laboratory; commercial scale applications have not yet been possible.