Researchers create the lightest graphene framework, offers excellent properties

Researchers from the Beijing Institute of Technology created the lightest graphene framework to date - which is also fire resistant and has record-breaking adsorption and capacitance. The new materials has a density of 2.1mg/cm3 - not the lightest material ever, but the lightest one made from graphene. To develop the new material, the researchers doped graphene with nitrogen by treating graphene oxide with pyrrole an aromatic, nitrogen-containing compound in a steam oven. This creates a large gel framework - which was later frozen dry and annealed at high temperature.

The material is fire resistant (see video above) and is able to withstand repeated burning without suffering any structural damage. It's also the most absorbent carbon-based material (see video below), able to adsorb between 200 and 600 times its own weight of oil or other non-polar liquids. See video below.

 

The new material can also generate a capacitance of over 480F/g, approaching the theoretical limit for pure graphene.

Posted: Oct 14,2012 by Ron Mertens