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).

applications of composites image

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.

graphene-bulb-demonstration-image

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

Nanomedical Diagnostics reporting major growth

Nanomedical Diagnostics, a U.S-based producer of graphene biosensors for pharmaceutical and biotherapeutics research, has announced a headquarters relocation, effectively tripling its space from 5,200 to 16,500 square feet.

Nanomedical Diagnostics Agile R100 photo

“This past year has seen exponential growth, both domestically and internationally, for the sales of our drug discovery platforms. We’re in the great position of having to move to a new space to accommodate expanded production and R&D,” says Nanomedical Diagnostics CEO, Ross Bundy. “Our new building enables better operational efficiencies for our production lines and brings departments that were formerly separated in different locations together under one roof. This allows for better collaboration and innovation as we launch new products and grow our staff.”

Read the full story Posted: Dec 14, 2018

University of Manchester and Inov-8 launch graphene-enhanced hiking boots

The collaboration between the University of Manchester and British sportswear brand Inov-8, which started in 2017 and has already produced the G-Series range of graphene-enhanced shoes, has now also resulted in a pair of hiking boots which utilize graphene.

University of Manchester and Inov-8 launch graphene-enhanced hiking boots image

Building on the above-mentioned use of graphene in trail running and fitness shoes last summer, Inov-8 is now bringing the technology to a market it considers to have been "starved of innovation". Two ROCLITE boots with graphene-enhanced rubber grip have been produced – the ROCLITE 335 and the ROCLITE 345 GTX. The former offers increased warmth on cold days, while the latter has waterproof GORE-TEX protection for hiking adventures in wet conditions.

Read the full story Posted: Dec 13, 2018

Versarien signs MOU with China Railway

Versarien Logo Versarien has announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group Co Ltd. ("CTCE"), a subsidiary of China Railway Group Limited ("CRG").

CRG is one of the world's largest construction and engineering contractors and is listed on the Shanghai and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges. CTCE is specifically focused on railway, bridge, tunnel and highway infrastructure engineering. It is active in China and overseas, including in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

Read the full story Posted: Dec 12, 2018

Versarien updates on AECOM collaboration

Versarien Logo Versarien, the advanced materials engineering group, has announced that it has signed a supply agreement to provide Versarien's new graphene enhanced polymer range to AECOM for a current infrastructure project.

This supply agreement follows the collaboration Versarien entered into with AECOM, a US headquartered and Fortune 500 company. This collaboration covered a project that AECOM and Versarien have been undertaking involving the incorporation of Versarien's graphene nano-platelets into large scale polymer structures used in civil infrastructure projects, with a view to increasing their structural strength.

Read the full story Posted: Dec 12, 2018

Graphene to enable ALS diagnosis

A team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago has been working on a way to facilitate ALS diagnosis by using a thin sheet of graphene. This material produces constant vibrations, also known as phonons, whose characteristics change once other materials are placed on its surface. By measuring these changes, researchers are able to tell the differences in the composition of different materials.

“Graphene is just one atom thick, so a molecule on its surface in comparison is enormous and can produce a specific change in graphene’s phonon energy, which we can measure,” Vikas Berry, associate professor and head of chemical engineering in the UIC College of Engineering and an author of the paper, said in a news release.

Read the full story Posted: Dec 11, 2018