Graphene: What’s all the hubbub?

The market for electronics is continually growing. Consumers are always looking for better computing, more effective communications, energy storage, smaller or lighter products, or full efficiency for the energy they put into something. When trying to decipher how technology will continue to advance, the world continues to look smaller. Current transistors are at a single digit of nanometers (10^-9) in size. Along with this, we are reaching theoretical limits for energy, communication speed, and heat transfer with the current physical materials in the market. Then, along came graphene.

Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms that display some of the best characteristics for any material on the known earth, which we will get into shortly. This material was found using a piece of graphite and tape by scientists Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov at the University of Manchester ⁽¹⁾. Though this substance had been theorized for dozens of years prior, the years since Geim and Novoselov’s findings have been full of further discoveries around this phenomenal substance.

Basic properties

The basic properties of graphene are astounding. At a single layer of atoms, this carbon substance is multitudes stronger than steel, has astonishing electrical and thermal conductivity, is transparent, light weight, and flexible. Its honeycomb pattern is the perfect size for water molecules, so it will allow those through while filtering out other potentially harmful liquids and gasses ⁽²⁾. It falls under the family of 2D materials. Though it has a discernable length and width, a single molecule’s height is infinitesimal, so it may as well be disregarded.

Pictured: the main shapes of graphene including sheet (top left), stacked (top right), nanotube (bottom left), and buckyball (bottom right). (Source: The NUS Centre for Advanced 2D Materials)

Expanded properties

With this, the single layer of carbon can utilize one photon to produce multiple electrons. Graphene is great on its own, but then you stack it (or place one sheet over the other) and it seems to get even better. Stacked graphene has properties that can help with transferring charges between layers and with superconductivity. There are new findings coming out all, the, time. So much of this is tied to the production of graphene. There are many ways to create graphene, most of which go well beyond tape and graphite at this point. Without going into all the details, you can grow it, spray it, plop it, cut it down, or any of several different processes. With that, it can be utilized with different surrounding materials, enhancing certain features that make it better for precise applications.

Difficulties

Graphene is not without its issues. It is a very young substance, only fully discovered by Geim and Novoselov in 2003. While there are potentially unlimited ways graphene can help advance our technologies, we are still figuring many of those out. Much of those limits come down to the fact that new findings are done in clean labs utilizing properties at extremely-low-temperature environments. The cost of production is high right now. Though it is based off one of the most common substances in the planet, it can be difficult to find the correct substance for a specific application.

Applications: Today

There are still applications graphene is utilized with today. Several battery manufacturers have graphene-based product on their shelves. Antennas have found that the basic sensitivity, strength and flexibility are worthwhile to have in close range antennas immediately. Solar panels are coming out that make the absorption of light more efficient for converting to energy. Water filtration systems are utilizing the honeycomb size to make more efficient filtering. Though there are challenges currently facing the production and research around graphene, its contribution can already be seen in numerous places.

Applications: Future

The potential future applications are approaching limitless. The idea of superconductivity opens ideas around quantum computing as well as memory and batteries we haven’t even come close to yet with current technologies. The transparency, flexibility, and strength could produce phone screens that are more sensitive than any product we have experienced yet, but don’t break when dropped. Wrap graphene into a ball, the applications continue to expand. You have new ways to treat disease with highly reliable targeted drug release ⁽³⁾, for example. You wrap the sheet of carbon atoms into a tube, then you have a super durable carbon nanotube that could be used for anything from new shirt fibers you can utilize to make durable fabrics to the base of new metals for our skyscrapers to grow even higher.

Why DigiKey has graphene

The industry is just starting to realistically see the benefits of graphene, and labs are still figuring out some of the assets it can provide. DigiKey wants to continue to push innovation throughout the electronics industry. Graphene has the chance to be behind many disruptive technologies. DigiKey, along with Kennedy Labs, wants to help people integrate this potential game-changing substance into whatever applications may arise. If you have any questions around how you could incorporate graphene into your design, please reach out to 2DMaterials@digikey.com. We would love to assist you in any way!

Click here to see Randall Restle’s New Product Discovery that provides a further introduction to this product!

References:

1 – https://www.graphene.manchester.ac.uk/learn/discovery-of-graphene/

2 – https://www.graphene-info.com/graphene-water-treatment

3 – http://www.thegraphenecouncil.org/?page=MedicalUsesOCT14