Graphene-One layer of atom

   

                                         Harder than diamond more elestic than rubber

                                           tougher than steel lighter than aluminum.

                                           electrical conductivity is 13x better than copper 

Graphene was first introduced in 2004 by two researchers at The University of Manchester, Professor Andre Geim and Professor Kostya Novoselov. In 2004 purposed the  idea and got Nobel Prize in 2010.

Graphene had already been studied theoretically in 1947 by P.R. Wallace as a text book example

Graphene Fridays

 

Andre and Kostya frequently held 'Friday night experiments' - sessions where they would try out experimental science that wasn’t necessarily linked to their day jobs.
One Friday, the two scientists removed some flakes from a lump of bulk graphite with sticky tape. They noticed some flakes were thinner than others. By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.

 

Graphene can used in-

Acting as a superconductor-

                                                  Graphene can also act as a superconductor, meaning that electrical current is able to flow through it with zero resistance.

A better speaker system-

                                                    

To produce sound, regular speakers create a pressure wave in the air by physically moving back and forth. Graphene could eventually offer a different approach. Researcher from the U.K.’s University of Exeter have demonstrated how graphene can create a non-moving solid-state audio device that may one day replace your existing bulky sound system with something called thermo-acoustic sound generation.
Instead of physically moving a component, this process works by using graphene to periodically vary the temperature of the air at a very high rate — enough to generate sound at audible frequencies and much higher, ultrasonic frequencies.

 

Body armor stronger than diamonds-

The hope is to develop this into ultrathin body armor, as light as foil, but strong as diamond, that is capable of stopping a bullet dead in its tracks.

 

 

  Filtering salt from seawater or color from whisky- 

   study demonstrated that a graphene membrane can filter 85 percent of salt out of seawater

 

 

Tracking our health-

    It’s not just building health that graphene’s good at detecting. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have demonstrated that it can help detect cancer cells,

 

 

Recharging our gadgets-

 

Graphene can also be used to create new batteries that recharge super quickly. One Chinese company called Dongxu Optoelectronic has built a battery pack called the G-King, which has a giant 4,800mAh capacity, but can reportedly charge from empty to full in just a quarter of an hour .

properties

  Super-Strength. Our little graphene superhero might be the thinnest material known to scientists, but it’s also 300 times stronger than steel and way harder than a diamond ever will be (diamonds are also part of the carbon family).

Super-Flexibility. Ever wish you could sit on your smartphone without breaking it? If it was made with graphene, you could! This material is completely transparent and flexible and has some great potential for use in our consumer electronics.

Super-Conductivity. Graphene is also one of the best conductors of both heat and electricity. This makes it the perfect alternative to both silicon and copper.

 

 

how was graphene discovered?

In 2004, two professors at the University of Manchester were able to extract graphene layer by layer using simple adhesive tape. They kept pulling off each layer one at a time, arriving finally at a layer that was a single layer of atoms. This great discovery kicked off a ton of research into the practical uses of graphene, and both Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov went on to receive Nobel prizes in 2010 for their discovery.