Graphene applications: what is graphene used for?

Graphene is a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb-like pattern. Graphene is considered to be the world's thinnest, strongest and most conductive material - to both electricity and heat. All this properties are exciting researchers and businesses around the world - as graphene has the potential the revolutionize entire industries - in the fields of electricity, conductivity, energy generation, batteries, sensors and more.

Mechanical strength

Graphene is the world's strongest material, and so can be used to enhance the strength of other materials. Dozens of researches have demonstrated that adding even a trade amount of graphene to plastics, metals or other materials can make these materials much stronger - or lighter (as you can use less amount of material to achieve the same strength).

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Such graphene-enhanced composite materials can find uses in aerospace, building materials, mobile devices, and many other applications.

Thermal applications

Graphene is the world's most conductive material to heat. As graphene is also strong and light, it means that it is a great material to make heat-spreading solutions, such as heat sinks. This could be useful in both microelectronics (for example to make LED lighting more efficient and longer lasting) and also in larger applications - for example thermal foils for mobile devices.

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Energy storage

Because graphene is the world's thinnest material, it is also the material with the highest surface-area to volume ratio. This makes graphene a very promising material to be used in batteries and supercapacitors. Graphene may enable devices that can store more energy - and charge faster, too. Graphene can also be used to enhance fuel-cells.

Coatings ,sensors, electronics and more

Graphene has a lot of other promising applications: anti-corrosion coatings and paints, efficient and precise sensors, faster and efficient electronics, flexible displays, efficient solar panels, faster DNA sequencing, drug delivery, and more.

Graphene is such a great and basic building block that it seems that any industry can benefit from this new material. Time will tell where graphene will indeed make an impact - or whether other new materials will be more suitable.

Latest graphene application news

First Graphene to work with SupremeSAT on graphene-enhanced components for miniature satellites

Advanced materials company First Graphene has announced that it has entered into a binding Memorandum of Understanding with SupremeSAT for the development of graphene-enhanced components for SupremeSAT's Miniature Satellite Assembly Project. The collaboration with FGR will aim to develop graphene-enhanced components, for both strength and weight reduction, and also heat and radiation shielding.

SupremeSAT is working on the Project with EnduroSAT of Bulgaria. Two leading universities in the USA will be joining this project shortly. The Project will test satellite interconnectivity and data exchange between satellites and a data relay within a constellation. Initially a duo of 1.5U Cube Satellites will be assembled at SupremeSAT's Satellite Assembling facility - Pallekele - Kandy, with hardware for the satellites, training and other variants of engineering support coming from EnduroSAT.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 18, 2018

Archer to collaborate with UNSW on graphene-based batteries

Australia-based mining company Archer Exploration has announced a collaboration agreement with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) to develop and implement Archer’s graphite and graphene materials for use in energy storage system applications targeting lithium-ion batteries.

The collaboration will mainly focus on the design of high-performance electrodes for lithium-ion batteries using graphite and graphene sourced from Archer’s Campoona deposit. This work is aiming at the development of electrodes for lithium-ion batteries and implementation of these electrodes in a number of advanced application full-cell and half-cell configurations.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 18, 2018

Chalmers team fights bacterial infections using vertical graphene films

A research team at Chalmers University has shown that a layer of vertical graphene flakes forms a protective surface that makes it impossible for bacteria to attach. Instead, bacteria are sliced apart by the sharp graphene flakes and killed. Coating implants with a layer of graphene flakes can therefore help protect patients against infection, eliminate the need for antibiotic treatment, and reduce the risk of implant rejection. The osseointegration - the process by which the bone structure grow to attach the implant - is not disturbed. In fact, the graphene has been shown to benefit the bone cells.

Chalmers University researchers stated that the biological applications of graphene began to materialize a few years ago. The researchers saw conflicting results in earlier studies, in which some showed that graphene damaged the bacteria, others that they were not affected. "We discovered that the key parameter is to orient the graphene vertically. If it is horizontal, the bacteria are not harmed" says Ivan Mijakovic, Professor at the Department of Biology and Biological Engineering.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 17, 2018

Chinese scientists develop a GO-based 3D conic device to increase solar-thermal conversion

Researchers from Nanjing University in China have developed a new device of 3D hollow-cone structure based on a graphene oxide film that can greatly increase the solar-thermal conversion efficiency.

The device, named 'Artificial Transpiration', is inspired by the transpiration process of trees. It has a special 1D water path within it, which can reduce the energy loss in conduction. The cone structure can reportedly collect more sunlight throughout the day when compared to a flat device, as about 10-50% of sunlight is diffusive. Thus it performs even better in the real world than in the laboratory, the team said.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 16, 2018

Versarien secures graphene supply contract with major tyre producer

Versarien Logo Versarien has announced that it has secured a purchase order for the Company's proprietary Nanene few layer graphene nano-platelets from a leading tyre producer, based in Europe.

Versarien will initially be providing 500g of Nanene for testing purposes, to explore the benefits of adding graphene to tyres supplied to the automotive sector. If successful, further orders would be expected.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 16, 2018

Versarien - Think you know graphene? Think again!