Twenty years ago, scientists announced that they had created a new miracle material that would change our lives. They mentioned it graphene.
Consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern, it is one of the strongest materials ever made and, for good measure, is a better conductor of electricity and heat than copper.
The prospects for a revolution in technology seemed endless and a new generation of ultra-fast processors and computers was predicted. Reports said it could charge batteries five times faster and make concrete 35% stronger.
It has even been touted as the solution to potholes; just mix it with traditional surface materials and the curse of modern driving will be eradicated, it was claimed.
The scientists from the University of Manchester who discovered it, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 and a National Graphene Institute was established at the university.
But the hype about this miracle material has died down considerably. Graphene has not yet caused an electronics revolution; pitfalls are still with us.
So what happened to the graphene revolution? Why didn’t it change our world? Sir Colin Humphreys, professor of materials science at Queen Mary University of London, has a straightforward answer: “Graphene is still a very promising material. The problem has been scaling up its production. That’s why it hasn’t made the impact which was foretold.”
Graphene was originally made in a rather unusual way, Humphreys explained. Geim and Novoselov created it by putting duct tape on lumps of graphite and peeling away the layers until they got one that was the thickness of an atom.
“But it will only be a small flake, a few millimeters across,” he added. “You can’t make electronic devices with bits like that. For working devices you must have at least 6 inch wafers of material. So IBM, Samsung and Intel have spent billions between them to scale up graphene production to produce it in useful shapes and quantities – with little success.”
As a result, the graphene revolution has been put on hold, although there have recently been encouraging signs that the technology may soon regain much of its original promise.
Humphreys believes the market could soon be reinvigorated thanks to breakthroughs in the production of graphene-based devices. A key development in this drive was made by Humphreys and his colleagues, who realized that the technology used to make gallium nitride electronic components could be exploited to make graphene on a large scale.
to newsletter promotion
“We used some of the first graphene we produced this way to make a sensor that can detect magnetic fields,” says Humphreys, who has since set up. a spin-off company, Paragraphwith his team.
Based in the Cambridgeshire town of Somersham, it has now become one of the first companies in the world to mass-produce graphene-based devices. Two reactors – shaped like pizza ovens – now produce enough graphene to make 150,000 devices a day.
It is used by Paragraph in two ways: first, to make sensors that measure magnetic fields. It can be used to detect malfunctioning batteries in e-bikes and e-scooters, to prevent fires.
The second type of sensor can distinguish between bacterial and viral infections, indicating whether antibiotics would be an appropriate treatment. “We also believe that we can use our biosensors to determine whether or not someone has sepsis within minutes,” Humphreys said.
The fact that graphene devices are likely to consume less energy than current devices is also important, he added.
“The silicon age is coming to an end. We have reached the limit of the number of transistors we can cram onto a single chip while the energy they consume doubles every three years.
“And that means if nothing happens, and we continue as we are doing, silicon devices will consume all the world’s electricity generation – which is a huge threat to our net zero aspirations.
“Graphene technology may have arrived later than we originally hoped, but it has the potential to circumvent these problems and make a real difference to modern life.”
Hyped science that didn’t make the grade
-
Nuclear power “Our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy that is too cheap to measure” – Lewis Strauss, then chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission in 1954.
-
The Sinclair C5 “This is the future of transportation” – promotional material for the Sinclair C5 electric scooter/car in 1985. First year sales of 100,000 were predicted, but only 5,000 were sold. The project was abandoned.
-
Medical advances “It is time to close the book on infectious diseases and declare the war on plague won” – attributed to Dr William H Stewart, US Surgeon General 1965-1969.
