How Graphene Could Solve Our Concrete Problem

this video is brought to you by surf shark graphene is considered one of the most important breakthroughs in material science since its discovery this wonder material was widely overhyped and is still not lived up to its potential but since my previous video on the truth about graphene we can now see more concrete and realistic applications hitting the market not those out of the world promises like the space elevator but what if we could cut down on carbon emissions from cement production by 20 and make cheaper and more powerful ev batteries using graphene is graphene finally starting to deliver on the promise let's see if we can come to a decision on this [Music] i try my best to not get caught up in the hype but i'm only human at least that's the rumor and the original graphene hype got me super excited for the future of battery technology computer processors but not space elevators i've always thought that that was just too out there however we're beginning to see this overhyped wonder material start to make its way into applications like building materials energy storage coatings and electronics its potential benefits for those applications is what sometimes leads to so much of the hype since its discovery now in my 2020 video about graphene this material was still more like a promise than a reality at the end of last year i touched on how skeleton technologies used curved graphene in a new line of super capacitors it's now 2022 and there are even more solid applications of graphene and research advancements happening right now that are worth exploring before we take a deep dive into these recent advancements let's quickly revisit the basics of graphene now graphene is a hexagonal honeycomb lattice made up of a single layer of carbon atoms it's a physical form of carbon with a molecule bond length of 0.142 nanometers and each atom is connected to three more around it by bonds that are very tight graphene essentially has only two dimensions if we stack several layers on top of each other we can turn it into graphite research on graphene started in 1947 by physicist philip r wallace but it was only discovered by researchers from the university of manchester in the united kingdom in 2004 by gaiman navusolof they used a sticky tape to peel flakes from a lump of graphite separating the layers until they were only one atom thick the discovery was so revolutionary that they were awarded the nobel prize in 2010. the wonder material as graphene is often called is one of the thinnest materials that we know of and the lightest compound ever discovered weighing around 0.77 milligrams per square meter graphene is one of the strongest compounds between 100 and 300 times stronger than steel as well as one of the best heat and electricity conductors at room temperature it has an electrical conductivity 70 higher than copper again you can probably see why it's been overhyped however it hasn't been easy to scale up graphene production although it has all the characteristics to be an excellent material in theory manufacturing defect-free graphene is often too expensive its price can vary a lot based on manufacturing conditions and the methods for the mass production of this material haven't been cost effective it's something that often happens in discoveries in the lab bring it to the market and producing it cheaply at scale can be extremely difficult now even though the best physical properties of graphene can be achieved using the peeling method proposed by gaming of ussloff it isn't the most effective and feasible way to produce tons of graphene now chemical vapor deposition or cvd is one of the main processes used to produce graphene this procedure consists of synthesizing graphene on a substrate often copper foil but it's still a challenge to produce long sheets of this material at scale however one example of a partnership trying to push this boundary is the joint venture formed between the chinese company hangzhou cable company and the university of new south wales that's trying to manufacture graphene power cables the cables could reduce electricity leakages lowering electricity costs and carbon emissions while improving the quality of grid transmission and the technology developed by the university could save about 275 terawatt hours in theory now while that's very interesting we haven't seen this innovation come out of the lab just yet even so graphene isn't just a list of unkept promises there are a lot of places it's creeping into production today and most of it's under the radar in short graphene has applications in places that you might not expect because graphene is strong light and an outstanding heat conductor it can be a great material for producing heat sinks or heat dissipation films huawei's latest smartphones for example have adopted graphene based thermal films and the british company graphene lighting is producing led lights using graphene as a thermal dissipation solution graphene can also be used for protective coatings with superior chemical moisture and corrosion and fire resistance the chinese company the sixth element produces several graphene products including a graphene zinc anti-corrosion primer that's suitable for offshore wind turbine towers and has competitive prices compared with zinc epoxy primers the big benefit is how it can improve the anti-corrosion properties of the paint by significantly reducing the amount of zinc powder and extending the lifespan of the offshore wind turbines however where i think graphene applications get super interesting is in the building sector before getting into those concrete ideas i'd like to thank today's sponsor surfshark i always recommend using a vpn when using public wi-fi but vpns can be very useful even when you're at home a lot of online services use some pretty sophisticated commercial tracking and machine learning to apply very targeted advertising a vpn can protect you from that search arc's clean web does a great job blocking ads trackers and malicious websites making it safer to use the internet even at home and you can even make it look like your ip address is coming from a completely different country this can come in handy if you want to stream a video that's only available from a specific location one of the best parts of surf shark is that it's easy to set up on all of your devices whether that's iphone or android mac or pc search is the only vpn to offer one account to use with an unlimited number of devices use my code to get 83 off plus three extra months for free surfshark offers a 30 day money back guarantee so there's no risk to try it out for yourself the link is in the description and thanks to surf shark and to all of you for supporting the channel now back to how graphene is starting to impact the building sector the australian-based company first graphene has its sights on the cement and concrete industry cement accounts for about eight to ten percent of co2 emissions which explains why it was a target for co2 reduction at cop26 40 the world's biggest cement and concrete companies have banded together to speed up the transition to greener concrete by pledging to reduce co2 emissions by 25 by 2030. i had a chance to talk to some of the scientists and managers at first graphene to get some details on why graphene can help with this in the cement production roadmap the main focus of carbon emissions is associated with the rotary cement kilns where the raw meal is burnt and calcined into something called clinker which is used as the binder of cement in this process huge amounts of electricity are spent for every ton of clinker produced we're talking about 800-900 kilograms of co2 per ton so first graphene is tackling the final grinding step where graphene can improve the efficiency of the cement grinding process graphene reduces the surface energy forces that cause agglomeration or clumping of the newly fractured cement particles to do this they produce graphene based on electrochemical exfoliation in which graphene is obtained from graphite when voltage is applied to it the voltage makes ionic species intercalate basically to inject themselves into the carbon layers where they produce gases that expand and exfoliate individual graphene sheets now instead of using tape to rip off layers of graphene you're using electricity to shed off layers of graphene it basically sheds layers of graphene one at a time they can produce graphene platelets with sizes between 5 and 20 microns which can then be easily dispersed in materials like concrete adding just a small amount of the graphene product and we're talking about 0.01 percent of the total concrete mix it can improve concrete's tensile and compressive strength also reducing the weight and the chances of cracking in my conversation with the company they explained how these improvements happen graphene is a nanoscale reinforcement like the steel reinforcement bar but at the atomic level the graphene can permeate the cement gel and stop cracks from developing on the nanoscale according to a case study made by the company when tested to international standard methods their product increases the compressive strength of concrete by 34 percent and the tensile strength by 27 on top of that it extends the life of the reinforced concrete structures because it avoids corrosion and also reduces the clinker by 20 and this is where that co2 reduction comes into play because of how it helps with the clinker co2 emissions can be reduced by 18 to 20 percent and the company has been diversifying applications in several other sectors including automotive aerospace boat and wind turbine blade manufacturing and a lot more first graphene ceo michael bell said a number of these products are already in commercial production including graphene enhanced swimming pools footwear fire retardant paints and wear liners for mining applications first graphene also has secured a uk patent for coating silicon anode particles with graphene for energy storage applications these silicon anodes have the potential to achieve higher energy densities 10 times higher than graphite anodes which currently sits at about 400 milliamp hours per gram although this technology is still at the early stage of development the big problem of these anodes is they degrade easily have low intrinsic electrical conductivity and have a slow diffusion rate of lithium within the electrode but coding the anode with graphene could increase conductivity and reduce the degradation issue first graphene isn't alone here global graphene group is another company that's been exploring this market similar to first graphene they manufacture several types of powders and pastes for different applications their technology can also be applied to energy storage to reduce problems with dendrites in lithium metal anode of solid states lithium sulfur and lithium air batteries as well as helping to reduce fire risk it enables the use of advanced cathode materials such as nmc 811 or sulfur which opens up room for energy density boosts sometimes over 350 watt hours per kilogram for lithium sulfur batteries and keeps the cost lower than 100 per kilowatt hour if you haven't seen it yet i have another video on a lithium sulfur battery breakthrough and i wonder if these two things could be combined the global graphene group is also focusing on silicon anodes with their subsidiary inks from energy according to the company the flexibility and mechanical strength of single layer graphene wrapped around silicon nanoparticles helps cushion the volume of the silicon during the charging and discharging process so those are some of the good examples of where graphing production stands today and where companies are starting to pilot its applications but what about tomorrow you don't have to look very far to see where the research is taking graphene an interesting study made by the researchers from skulkova institute of science and technology presented the first graphene synthesis approach that uses carbon monoxide as the carbon source in addition to producing graphene at high quality the technique proposed in the paper achieved low cost and great production speed skull tech professor albert nasibulen who's leading the research said the beauty of carbon monoxide is that it's exclusively catalytic decomposition which allowed us to implement self-limiting synthesis of large crystals of single-layer graphene even at ambient pressure their strategy takes advantage of the so-called self-limiting principle when carbon monoxide molecules get close to the copper substrate at high temperatures they tend to split into carbon and oxygen atoms this propensity fades when the first layer of crystalline carbon is produced and separates the gas from the substrate according to skull tech intern artem grebinko the system offers several advantages the resulting graphene is purer grows faster and forms better crystals moreover this tweak prevents accidents with hydrogen and other explosive gases by eliminating them from the process altogether now when it comes to costs gribbing pointed out once you drop the high end hardware for generating ultra high vacuum you can actually assemble our garage solution for no more than a thousand dollars graphene has the potential to improve material performance and also to chart a path towards our low carbon future the graphene market has been hot around the globe and is projected to grow from 388 million dollars in 2021 to over 4 billion in 2028 at a rate of 39.8 percent however scaling up production and standardizing the quality of graphene are still challenging which leads to cost as a big problem although graphing prices decreased from tens of thousands of dollars for a small piece in 2010 to about a hundred dollars a gram currently it's still an expensive material although we can see exciting products and applications hitting the market now and in the very near future it looks like we're still waiting for the bigger promises of graphene however with companies like first graphene and global graphene groups starting to push and perfect the manufacturing process it's looking like we're closer to graphene's promise than ever before we stop the weight though especially for that space elevator so are you still undecided do you think graphene is going to change industries like energy storage and construction or is it still just hype jump in the comments and let me know and be sure to check out my follow-up podcast still to be determined where we'll be discussing some of your feedback if you like this video be sure to check out one of the videos over here and thanks to all my patrons for your continued support and welcome to new support plus members einar olufsen joseph fesser and sean and i'm sorry if i butchered your names and thanks to all of you for watching we'll see in the next one

Channel: Undecided with Matt Ferrell

Views: 586,530

Keywords: concrete, concrete climate change, concrete co2, concrete co2 emissions, eco friendly concrete, engineering, graphene, graphene battery, graphene battery technology, graphene coating, graphene explained, graphene production, graphene strength test, graphene technology, graphite, inventions, material, material science, The truth about graphene, undecided with matt ferrell, what is graphene

Id: Sew_2qPq5qI

Length: 12min 54sec (774 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 19 2022