Mikael Fogelstrom: Graphene, from a layer of atoms to applications

Graphene is often called the “material of superlatives” because so much about it is extreme. Made of a single layer of carbon atoms, it is the thinnest structure ever (it is actually 2D). It is impermeable, stronger than diamond, and the best thermal conductor found to date. Mikael Fogelstrom, head of the Graphene Institute at Chalmers University, explains graphene’s chemical structure, its potential applications, and why this might just catapult us into the next Carbon Age.
Mikael is a Professor in theoretical physics and a Scientific Leader of the Graphene Centre at Chalmers University of Technology. His main topics of research are mesoscopic and unconventional superconductivity. Recently, he has added research on graphene and topological materials to his portfolio.
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[@starview1]

Outstanding,this material could perhaps change the world as much as the wheel did.

[@Varue]

"4 years ago" rip

[@Sxvxn]

Damn!

[@Brainbuster]

Build cars and airplanes out of this, and they will use WAY less fuel (because of their light weight). Also they'll be safer. Build wind turbines out of this, and they will spin when our current heavier turbines do not spin in low winds. Finally, I think it would make a good screen protector. However, if it's flexible like he says, then it will just bend and the glass it's covering will crack.

[@froztbytes]

tho it can't be used in transistors cos it can't be turned off which is a bummer

[@angusandthetriplets]

And you can buy tiny discs (38 mm diameter) on eBay. They're only 10 µg (micrograms) in weight. There are 1-million micrograms in a gram. A gram is about the size of a paperclip. At only one atom thick, you'd have to put 100,000 tiny 38 mm discs in your hand to feel the equivalent of the average paperclip. I know. Geek alert! I'm just fascinated by the possibilities of a material so strong, so thin, so environmentally-friendly. NASA could perhaps achieve its dream to construct a craft that could reach unfathomable speeds.

[@nate5205]

+Lesa Rhoton its ok to be a geek just not a nerd lol

[@jamesgl]

Mikael Fogelstrom is better at speaking than he used to be.

[@travis8654]

Yay, a pencil hold our future! I like that ironic future. :D

[@dysonsquared]

Wouldnt any molecule be mainly colorless at that thinness?

[@kurticus91]

This is amazing. The possibilities are endless.

[@lordgrill252]

The poor man is so nervous, cant blame him though :c

[@howtoguro]

+Marco Noneofurbizness I feel like his English is a bit shaky, but he seriously did a great job.

[@OlinScharm95]

That dude's got some balls... He already had a ted talk 1 year earlier where you could tell that he was 10 times as nervous as this time, but that didn't stop him from coming back to the stage. He's admirable

[@dotdotdot1113]

Marco Noneofurbizness I thought he was just out of breath

[@merchantdetective7949]

I'm just sitting here thinking, "A sheet of super thin aluminum foil is 50,000 atoms thick," then he says that graphene is one atom thick... Holy crap!!

[@blasemmanuelvillarino1754]

This material holds our future.

[@Julian_H]

THIS IS AMAZING now why isn't everything made out of it yet?

[@OlinScharm95]

+Dossifying it still is because of the production costs

[@Wataheadable]

+Dossifying No LOL. It is one of the most abundant materials in the world. And it isn't the "production cost". Our scientists just don't know how to effectively make it without it having abnormalities. That 2 panel example he showed would be 1 in a couple of thousand samples conducted under the exact same test. Kinda like saying, every car on earth has 5000 siblings that were sacrificed to make it. Doesn't sound too profitable? And unfortunately, smart people don't want to invest in an infrequent production process, because that is the best way to reduce any potential science in that area. Universities will invest in it, and eventually sell a formula for billions to a tycoon company like Apple, Google or Samsung, who will then mass produce it. Lets just say, right now you can do 10x more with a pencil than you can do with Grpahene in the next 10 years. And i am talking about creative ways to use a pencil, not your standard writing.

[@challengeaccepted8835]

Long story short, it's hard to make a 1 atom thick item

[@Phelan666]

Aidan LJ "Our scientists just don't know how to effectively make it without it having abnormalities." That _is_ a production cost issue...

[@lear8989]

graphene condoms?

[@sidcros9444]

graphene silicon condoms

[@Ioganstone]

The woman wont be able to tell hehehe

[@Whoami691]

WHY ARE WE NOT FUNDING THIS!????

[@heyfindmenoob]

I think the government has millions into universities / company's helping research it

[@heyfindmenoob]

I think the government has millions into universities / company's helping research it

[@heyfindmenoob]

I think the government has millions into universities / company's helping research it

[@nate5205]

+Whoami691 because 1 micrometer cost over 1000 dollers to make, also it has a band gap witch means it will not turn off if we use it for electronics so unless some big company with deep pokets can figure out how to go around this, then the only thing we can use it for now would be for tennis carets, light bulbs and skies.

[@Whoami691]

Jaberous Body armour? Spaceship hull lining? Tank lining? It is harder than diamond, the military will have a field day with this.

[@angusandthetriplets]

+Jaberous I'm both. Thank you for noticing. 😀

[@rashmiranjannayak3251]

Effective job for society; good many thank but what is the thickness of that sheet is it of single atom layer much in number.

[@ufoengines]

Cool! how much power can you stuff into a Graphene ultra capacitor that is as big a Pringles can? Can Stanene be use to make an ultracap? Was thinking that you can get rid of power grids and just fed-x the electricity around,using trucks and plane powered by ultracaps of course.

[@g.skahlon6342]

good information

[@hoxuanthu1789]

AD có thể vietsup được không?

[@Ben10Blader]

Cool fact: If you wore 100 hundred layers of this stuff it would be equivalent to wearing armor as hard as diamond, flexible, and only a nanometer thick. Crazy right?

[@TheSportcamaro87]

Lol until a storm rolls in and you become the strongest lightning rod in history

[@Ben10Blader]

+jason santiago Lol yeah, that would suck. Just one more reason to stay inside and play video games.

[@howtoguro]

+jason santiago Eh, but it takes the path of least resistance, why would the electricity even bother going through you, when graphene is so conductive anyways. I guess if it wasn't touching the ground.

[@ValentineSuicide1]

+jason santiago Then you wouldn't be electrocuted because lightning moves to the most conductive surface area which is the suit instead of your skin. *see Faraday cage*

[@ninjaslash52_98]

Imagine robbing a bank and when the cops try to shoot the bullets bounce off you...like magic the confusion in their eyes XD

[@nmarbletoe8210]

biocompatible! That's a trip, I did not know that.

[@vikashtudu5572]

but the question here is that how will it can be extract in an efficient way ??

[@amiri7392]

Now we just need someone to make something that turns Carbon Dioxide into Graphene,

[@Eyedunno]

Or really anything that filters CO2 from the air and fixes it more efficiently than plants do. That would give you something you could then make into graphite, from which you could make graphene.

[@amiri7392]

That works, I didn't mean just directly, as long as CO2 is converted into graphene. which would mass produce graphene, while cleaning up the atmosphere.

[@Eyedunno]

Yeah, but that's probably a long way off. For now, you'd be better off just growing plants and using the carbon from them.

[@semi-automaticdooropened9007]

Where can i buy it

[@yunior5201]

So this can withstand a bullet? Hmmm what about a bullet with some kind of electrical charge that releases upon impact? Kinda like a taser but without those cables.... Would that do anything to you if you are wearing graphene armor?

[@ChaosTJC1]

or a graphene tipped bullet

[@Wataheadable]

+yunior5201 There are always ways to bypass armours. When kevlar was made, people literally thought it was the end of the world. Anyone who owned it would be invincible. Until the armour piercing bullet was invented, but it costs alot more than a regular bullet.

[@yunior5201]

EnthusiasticTaco Yeah good point. I guess some of us get carried away with whats in front of us and forget to think about whats next sometimes.

[@willfrank961]

It's on a plastic sheet but it's there i swear!

[@avidgamer2011]

Graphene batteries have just entered mass production for rc aircraft.

[@Brainbuster]

bullshit

[@avidgamer2011]

+Brainbuster www.hobbyking.com/mobile/viewproduct.asp?idproduct=91179 It is suspected that due to their weight, these may be normal LiPO batteries with graphene added in certain places, however they do contain graphene and are available for purchase right now.

[@sahajization]

All i can think of right now is that Ironman is so fucked if this technology actually works! -_-

[@felipegonzalez8549]

if its one atom thick...that would slice your hand before you realise!.....

[@amiri7392]

Well it can't just slice through everything, it would just bounce off unless force is applied from the other direction, and then it would most likely just end up bending.

[@s0dfish110]

I imagine the people of the stone age imagining the bronze age. They knew it was coming. People don't change. We think more than we have. It will take us a while to be more than we are, or reach our limits. I just hope we value all life as much as we value knowledge during the process. Life even more so. That would be our GREATEST triumph. However, when we have all we want, we will only seek to improve ourselves, and this will be the time we are most in danger.

[@Onetazien]

I just want that glass in the 1986 Aliens movie that don't break.

[@alessioleporati276]

When he talks he sounds like the villain of a bond film.

[@sahajization]

but how long does it hold the electricity cuz super capacitors discharge quickly.... anybody??

[@JohnnyFPriv]

+Sahaj Kuldeep Nobody knows cause no one has ever built a supercapacitor made out of Graphene. I'm currently working with an investigator in Mexico to try and synthesize enough graphene to make a single electrostatic capacitor cell.

[@sahajization]

Johnny Rubin ooh cool... let me know how it works...

[@petarstoyanov908]

Holly crap! (excuse my profanity) This amazing new "element" can revolutionise everything ! Im seriously hoping for the best ! because this just might give me a future ride to the moon that i am hoping for ! :D

[@TheSportcamaro87]

Look up Mars one. There already a Swedish team going to Mars to attempt to colonize/terraform or whatever they can do to it. Besides idk how graphing would react to the extreme heat of breaking atmospheres, and lack of gravity in space. Hover boards are possible now though!

[@JohnnyFPriv]

+jason santiago Hoverboards?? That is awesome!! But how?

[@metaliniumexpertenterresra2052]

Science + Business + Graphène = metalinium alors ne râtez pas l'âge du Graphène !

[@robertfarquhar2780]

I remember when I use to make Pandora batteries for PSP's I would always have to cut into the circuit board and severe connections and which it still worked but you had to do this to boot into a magic memory stick yes I know what I'm saying sounds stupid and pointless but I would take my pencil and draw back in the spot that I cut in the chip of the battery to get the psp to boot back up normally

[@loganatori6117]

I read that and understood nothing u said lol even though I work with electronics

[@robertfarquhar2780]

nomore bullying It's something you have to do to hack psp's it's not important but I was just explaining how graphite is highly conductible

[@black_squall]

The PENcil is mightier.

[@lucetto]

Wow.

[@12345JJBB]

And yet, I could put a hole in that sheet of plastic

[@amiri7392]

did you try?

[@mrfreakinest]

u mean you could try... and is not plastic XD

[@arshadazim3409]

Vibranium!!

[@camryn8980]

See what happens when you melt it (if you can)

[@simontrem080]

He sounds like his about to puke