To date, it has proved very difficult to convert the promises of the miracle material graphene into practical applications. Amedeo Bellunato, PhD candidate at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry, has developed a method of cutting graphene into smaller fragments using a diamond knife. He can then construct nanostructures from the fragments. Graphene is a honeycomb…
Proteins Imaged in Graphene Liquid Cell Possess Higher Radiation Tolerance
Electron microscopy is one of the main methods used to examine protein structure. Studying these structures is of key importance to elucidate their function feeding fundamental information into a number of fields such as structural biology, cell biology, cancer research, and other biomedical fields. It also enhances the understanding of biomineralization. A new option for…
Graphene Utilized to Detect ALS, Other Neurodegenerative Diseases
The wonders of graphene are numerous — it can enable flexible electronic components, enhance solar cell capacity, filter the finest subatomic particles and revolutionize batteries. Now, the “supermaterial” may one day be used to test for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS — a progressive, neurodegenerative disease which is diagnosed mostly by ruling out other disorders,…
Dissolving Nanographene Aids Next-gen Nanomaterials
Even though nanographene is insoluble in water and organic solvents, Kumamoto University (KU) and Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) researchers have found a way to dissolve it in water. Using “molecular containers” that encapsulate water-insoluble molecules, the researchers developed a formation procedure for a nanographene adlayer, a layer that chemically interacts with the underlying…
Graphene Offers Fresh Potential for ‘Smart Textiles’
The quest to create affordable, durable and mass-produced “smart textiles” has been given fresh impetus through the use of the “wonder material” graphene. An international team of scientists, led by Professor Monica Craciun from the University of Exeter Engineering department, has pioneered a new technique to create fully electronic fibers that can be incorporated into…
Egg-like Nanoreactors Created Using Titanium Dioxide and Graphene
A RUDN chemist has developed a new method for synthesizing “yolk-shell” nanoparticles on the basis of titanium dioxide and graphene. The complex structure of the new particles allowed the scientists to carry out a selective oxidation for aldehyde production for many hours without the formation of any byproducts. The research was published in Applied Catalysis…
Artificial Magnetic Field Provokes Exotic Behavior in Graphene
A simple sheet of graphene has noteworthy properties due to a quantum phenomenon in its electron structure called Dirac cones. The system becomes even more interesting if it comprises two superimposed graphene sheets, and one is very slightly turned in its own plane so that the holes in the two carbon lattices no longer completely…
Natural Fibers Gather Strength from Graphene
Scientists from The University of Manchester have combined graphene with the natural fiber, jute, to create a world’s first for graphene-strengthened natural jute fiber composites. The breakthrough could lead to the manufacturing of high-performance and environmentally friendly natural fiber composites that could replace their synthetic counterparts in major manufacturing areas, such as the automotive industry,…
Study Unlocks Full Potential of ‘Supermaterial’ Graphene
New research reveals why the “supermaterial” graphene has not transformed electronics as promised, and shows how to double its performance and finally harness its extraordinary potential. Graphene is the strongest material ever tested. It’s also flexible, transparent and conducts heat and electricity 10 times better than copper. After graphene research won the Nobel Prize for…
Starch and Graphene Hydrogel Aids Brain Implant Electrodes
Hydrogels with electrical and antibacterial properties suitable for neural interfaces have been created in a piece of work at the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country The Materials + Technology research group at the UPV/EHU’s Faculty of Engineering-Gipuzkoa has, in collaboration with the University of Strasbourg, developed some hydrogels with potential biomedical applications. Starch was used…
Simulations Show Graphene Can Stretch into a Tunable Ion Filter
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have conducted simulations suggesting that graphene, in addition to its many other useful features, can be modified with special pores to act as a tunable filter or strainer for ions (charged atoms) in a liquid. The concept, which may also work with other membrane materials,…
GHz Signals Get a Boost from Graphene
Graphene — a one-atom-thick layer of hexagonally arranged carbon atoms ǿ is the thinnest and strongest material known to man and an excellent conductor of heat and electricity. Since 2004, when researchers discovered how to extract it from graphite, graphene has opened new windows of opportunity in the world of science and technology. Over the…
‘Magnetic Topological Insulator’ Creates a Personal Magnetic Field
A team of U.S. and Korean physicists has found the first evidence of a two-dimensional material that can become a magnetic topological insulator even when it is not placed in a magnetic field. “Many different quantum and relativistic properties of moving electrons are known in graphene, and people have been interested, ‘Can we see these…
New Graphene Technology Enhances Electronic Displays
With virtual reality (VR) sizzling in every electronic fair, there is a need for displays with higher resolution, frame rates, and power efficiency. Now, a joint collaboration of researchers from SCALE Nanotech, Graphenea, and TU Delft have used graphene to make reflective-type displays that operate faster and at much higher resolution than existing technologies. Displays…
Germanene Heralds the Future of Electronics
Researchers have found an easier, scalable way to produce high-quality 2D sheets of germanium, possibly paving the way to industrial-scale production and the advent of the next generation of electronics. In contrast to graphene (carbon), which is the best-known 2D material, flat, pure sheets of silicon (silicene), tin (stanene) and germanium (germanene) — “post-graphene” materials…
Researchers Reveal Spontaneous Polarization of Novel Ultrathin Materials
Many materials exhibit new properties when in the form of thin films composed of just a few atomic layers. Most people are familiar with graphene, the two-dimensional form of graphite, but thin film versions of other materials also have the potential to facilitate technological breakthroughs. For example, a class of three-dimensional materials called Group-IV monochalcogenides…
Graphene Provides Boost for Epoxy Compound
Rice University scientists have built a better epoxy for electronic applications. Epoxy combined with “ultrastiff” graphene foam invented in the Rice lab of chemist James Tour is substantially tougher than pure epoxy and far more conductive than other epoxy composites while retaining the material’s low density. It could improve upon epoxies in current use that…
Graphene Takes Care of Wastewater Stink
University of New South Wales researchers are collaborating with Sewer Venting and Crane Hire Services (SVSR) to look at the potential for graphene oxide to be applied to wastewater collection networks. A team of UNSW Sydney researchers is collaborating with Sewer Venting and Crane Hire Services (SVSR) to examine a new method for controlling odors…
Distinguishing a Graphene Flake from a Graphene Fake
A lack of quality control in the graphene market has led to inferior products being touted as high-grade, so now a National University of Singapore research team has developed a reliable way to test graphene quality Ever since the isolation of graphene was first achieved in 2004, there has been an explosion in graphene-related research…
Light Detected in a Different Dimension
Scientists from the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)—a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory—have dramatically improved the response of graphene to light through self-assembling wire-like nanostructures that conduct electricity. The improvement could pave the way for the development of graphene-based detectors that can quickly sense light at…
Innovative Catalyst Transforms Pollutant into Fuel
Rather than allow power plants and industry to toss carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, incoming Rice University assistant professor Haotian Wang has a plan to convert the greenhouse gas into useful products in a green way. Wang, who will join Rice as the William Marsh Rice Trustee Chair and assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular…
New Insulating State Discovered in Stretched Graphene
By using the powerful K supercomputer to simulate with unprecedented accuracy what happens to graphene as it is stretched, RIKEN researchers have discovered a new state of the material (Physical Review Letters, “Correlation-driven dimerization and topological gap opening in isotropically strained graphene”). This finding suggests new device applications for graphene. Graphene is a single layer…
Serendipitous Discovery Leads to a New Technique
A team of multi-disciplinary scientists and engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have discovered a new, more precise method to create nanoscale-size electromechanical devices. Their research findings are published in Nature Communications. “In the last five years, there has been a huge gold rush where researchers figured out we could make 2D materials…
Aqueous Hybrid Capacitor Grows More Powerful
A KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) research team made it one step closer to realizing safe energy storage with high energy density, high power density, and a longer cycle life. This hybrid storage alternative shows power density 100 times faster than conventional batteries, allowing it to be charged within a few seconds.…
Materials Contain New Quantum Behaviors
Layered transition metal dichalcogenides or TMDCs—materials composed of metal nanolayers sandwiched between two other layers of chalcogens— have become extremely attractive to the research community due to their ability to exfoliate into 2D single layers. Similar to graphene, they not only retain some of the unique properties of the bulk material, but also demonstrate direct-gap…