Graphene is the future

Graphene is probably the most fascinating material of the twenty-first century and will probably become a vital part of our lives in the future. It is basically a one atom thick sheet of Carbon atoms that are loosely bonded, but it has some incredibly useful properties that scientists are beginning to understand.

The history of Graphene is relatively short as it was first theorized in 1947 (which led to some people believing it may have been found at the Roswell crash site) however at the time it was not thought that it could exist in the real world. Despite this in 2004 a team which was later awarded the Noble Prize for Physics was able to demonstrate that it could exist in a single sheet. The sheets developed are also incredibly thin and it would take three million sheets to make the material 1mm thick.

Not only is it incredibly thin it is also incredibly strong. A one meter square sheet would weigh the same amount as a cat’s whisker however it would be able to quite easily support the weight of an average cat. It will also happily keeps its state so it is actually possible to pick up a single sheet.

As well as being incredibly strong it also conducts electricity better than copper which could lead to be it being a replacement for silicon in the future (which we will probably need as silicon supplies are running out) and IBM are already using it to produce a 140 GHz transistor - although some scientists believe that it may have an unlimited speed. The only issue is that it is also the best conductor of heat known to man so cooling may be an issue.

Despite the fact some scientists think that the technology is over hyped its potential is clearly great and many governments have noticed this with vast sums of money being put into research. The two scientists at Manchester University that developed Graphene and won the Noble prize are being knighted by the Queen.

LG plans to have Graphene based products available within five years and I would suggest that it is a smart move.