The truth about graphene - what's the hold up?

this video is brought to you by brilliant click the link in the description below ever since it was first discovered in 2004 graphene has been hailed as one of the most important breakthroughs in materials since the plastics revolution more than a century ago a million times thinner than a human hair but 200 times stronger than steel the early predictions were that graphene would almost immediately enable the kinds of products and technologies that we're used to seeing in sci-fi movies cut to more than a decade and a half later and that still hasn't happened not even close with opinions split between people over hyping graphene or calling it a massive disappointment it's time that we got to the truth of what's really happening with this so-called wonder material i'm matt farrell welcome to undecided [Music] the hype around graphene is hardly surprising a man-made substance with extraordinary properties it's incredibly versatile and conductive and is predicted to heavily disrupt industries ranging from consumer electronics to aerospace for a while now but even though that progress hasn't been as fast as many would have hoped researchers and product makers are now at last beginning to make some headway before we go on to what it can do though let's first take a look at what graphene actually is to put it simply it's fundamentally a single layer of graphite the material we use to make a pencil but instead of having a three-dimensional crystalline structure like graphite graphene is two-dimensional meaning it's just one atom thick with the atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice or honeycomb arrangement it's a bit like chicken wire this structure is important because it allows each carbon atom to be covalently bonded to three more around it and the strength of these bonds is one of the main reasons why graphene is so strong and stable another reason is because the atoms delocalize electrons meaning they can move around more freely and this is what makes graphene so good at conducting electricity in heat in fact it's the most conductive material that we've ever come across you're probably thinking that the process of discovering this amazing material must have been so crazy complicated that us mere mortals couldn't possibly comprehend how it was done but it was actually almost laughably simple it was first isolated or extracted from graphite by two researchers andre game and kostya novoselov at the university of manchester in the uk back in 2004 how did they do it by using sticky tape on a piece of graphite and peeling it off folding it and then repeating the process over and over again until they ended up with a single layer of graphene yep it really is easy as that although graphene was known to exist as far back as the 1940s the discovery was widely celebrated by the scientific community game and nova selloff were awarded the nobel prize for physics in 2010 and it immediately generated huge levels of excitement about the materials possibilities and potential uses in what many people hoped wouldn't be the not too distant future expectations range from using it to replace silicon transistors and electronics in the short term all the way to building an immense cable or tether that could be used for a space elevator made out of graphene in the future although i think we can all safely say that idea is still a little ways off for the time being so what exactly is holding it back why is the market not flooded with graphene-based products that we've known how to make for years when graphene was first isolated it was done in very tiny amounts and one of the main issues since then has been how to scale up production of the material while ensuring the quality of graphene that you end up with is good enough for the applications that is intended for when the process of mass producing the material is at least for now very complex and expensive graphene products need to be significantly better than what's already out there for them to be considered worthwhile if they're not as good as the material that they're trying to replace or there's very little noticeable difference then why even bother for example silicon is an excellent material for use in electronics because of its special semiconducting qualities and many experts don't see it as having many weaknesses so if graphene is going to knock it off its perch with the added cost and hassle needed to make it then it will need to be a true game changer once the production methods have matured enough this was the problem with the first products that came out which included graphene in some form many of the early entrepreneurs that were first to bring things to market ended up disappointing their customers and investors with products that did technically incorporate graphene but didn't sufficiently outperform what was already out there despite costing considerably more it was too soon not enough follow-up research had been done at that stage and it actually put a lot of people off of graphene as a marketable material for quite a while fortunately researchers have been testing a range of new approaches to mass producing graphene in recent years and the results we're starting to see are very promising which is just as well otherwise we'd be needing a lot of sticky tape to build that space elevator now one of the most popular and well-tested methods is a process called chemical vapor deposition or cvd where graphene is effectively grown on a metallic surface like copper by combining carbon-bearing gases inside a high-temperature reaction chamber this leads to the graphene being deposited onto the metal which then can be separated and transferred onto a substance that needs enhancing but doing it this way requires large amounts of energy only yields a small amount and relies on use of harsh chemicals that can create toxic byproducts which is why others have gone to search for cleaner cheaper and less power-hungry ways to make graphene one new approach that has caught the eye of experts in the field is called flash graphing which has been described as a way to turn trash into treasure this involves taking virtually any material with high carbon content such as used rubber tires and even some mixed plastics and converting it into graphene in an instant the material is heated to 3 000 kelvins which is approximately 5 5000 degrees fahrenheit in just 10 milliseconds this causes all of the carbon to carbon bonds to break and reconstruct as turbostratic graphene which has misaligned layers that are easier to separate its creator is a team at rice university in houston hope to produce a kilogram of graphene a day within two years others have been experimenting with new and emerging technologies such as 3d printing to see whether they could be used for graphene production researchers at the massachusetts institute of technology successfully printed a number of 3d objects from graphene and compared the results with conventional materials some of the pieces came out 10 times stronger than steel at 1 20th the mass scientists have also experimented with dispersing graphene and water which would allow it to be sprayed under the surface as a coating a team at umea university in sweden has created a thin film of highly conductive material from a dispersed graphene solution they're hopeful that this will be able to be used to create electrodes for super capacitors which are advanced storage solutions that can charge much quicker and degrade less than batteries but can't yet hold as much energy while the plentiful supply of this wonder material remains a work in progress we're now finally starting to see the release of graphene-based products that do seem to offer significant tangible benefits over what the competitors have been making for years with industry standard materials a company called real graphene has created a graphene-enhanced lithium battery that's thought to be on the verge of commercial use it can cut phone charging time from an hour and a half to 20 minutes last three to five times longer than conventional lithium batteries and generates less heat this was achieved by mixing graphene with the lithium and introducing a composite layer of graphene touch screens made with graphene are thought to be on the horizon as well they can be printed on thin plastic rather than glass which would make them light flexible shatter proof and therefore ideal for smartphones graphene's high strength and heat conductive properties make it an excellent material for a variety of protective equipment too italian motorcycle helmet manufacturer momo design now offers a wide range of helmets with graphene coated exterior shells according to the company the presence of graphene improves the distribution of any impact force and dissipates heat faster than conventional materials increasing the protection from thermal degradation another italian company italcimente has proposed graphene-infused cement which could lead to houses that don't require wiring as the building material is already highly conductive on its own graphene's thermal properties allow for walls that easily dissipate heat potentially eliminating the need for air conditioning units in hot countries with demand for fresh water around the world also on the rise graphene may have the answer to this challenge too physicists in china and the us have invented a graphene-based desalination membrane that can remove salt from seawater it's a combination of a single sheet of graphene and a carbon nanotube mesh which creates a centimeter-sized membrane desalination can already be done with evaporation but this uses a lot of energy reverse osmosis is another method but better membranes have been needed for years it could even kill bacteria and help save lives researchers at chalmers university of technology in sweden have shown how attaching vertical graphene flakes to the surface of medical implants protects them from bacterial infections this could eliminate the need for antibiotics and lowers the chance of implant rejection which is surprisingly common in fact healthcare is now one of the leading sectors for graphene applications its ultra thin thickness is ideal for flexible circuits a potential new way for monitoring people for health purposes or possibly harnessing energy from the wearer themselves they can be worn on the skin in the form of a smart patch integrated in contact lenses or at the extreme end used to create tiny sensors that travel in the bloodstream although experts in the media have been saying this for more than a decade it does feel as though we're on the cusp of a long-awaited graphene era research has come a long way in recent years mass production now looks feasible we're seeing products launched that demonstrate the material's power and the list of realistic applications appears to be growing by the day the thing i think a lot of people lose sight of is that there's a pretty wide gap going from lab to mass-produced product it will take time for some of the more ambitious proposals that we've covered here to see the lid of day if they ever do but there are still lots of reasons to be excited about the future of this incredible material and the key to making advancements like this is having a strong understanding of scientific principles and thinking so if you're like me and you enjoy puzzling through how all this comes together and why today's sponsor brilliant can help you do just that i've taken the scientific thinking and science essential courses which break down how to intuitively understand the scientific method energy and the states of matter and it's not just foundational science brilliant has over 60 courses including topics in mathematics science and computer science so whether you're a professional looking to keep up with the latest topics and learn new skills or someone who just enjoys learning and trying to understand how the world works brilliant is for you and what makes brilliant so great is that it breaks down the complex concepts into digestible bite-sized chunks learn through doing with fun and interactive puzzles it's not about memorizing formulas it's about understanding the concepts and applying them to learn more go to brilliant.org undecided where you can sign up for free and also the first 200 people will also get 20 off their annual premium membership thanks to brilliant and to all of you for supporting the channel now if you're a member of my patreon i've got a little extra graphing video for you there so be sure to check that out if you like this video be sure to check out my video on the truth about solid state batteries there's been a lot of hype around that for years too but where do things stand today now jump into the comments and let me know what you think about graphene and if you've bought any products with graphene in it i'd be curious to hear about that be sure to subscribe if you think i've earned it and as always thanks so much for watching i'll see you in the next one

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Keywords: graphene, graphene battery, graphene bike, graphene coating, graphene explained, graphene power bank, graphene production, graphene strength test, graphene supercapacitor, graphene technology, The truth about graphene, what is graphene, carbon, chemistry, education, elon musk, engineering, graphite, graphène, inventions, material, physics, research, rice university, science, science experiments, technology, tesla, undecided with matt ferrell, solid state battery

Id: KhQrGtragXc

Length: 11min 46sec (706 seconds)

Published: Tue May 26 2020