The Future Of Graphene..

Graphene is a material made from carbon atoms bonded together, it is said to be the 'Miracle Material' of the 21st century as well as being able to change the future of computers and other devices. Graphene has been established as the strongest material ever measured,
'It would take an elephant, balanced on a pencil, to break through a sheet of graphene the thickness of cling film' Hudson, A (2011)

 

Model of Graphene

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9491789.stm

Graphene is versatile and seen as a range of materials such as plastic which can be used for many objects. Since the discovery of Graphene, over 200 companies have been involved in projects and research around its properties. The idea is to use Graphene to create more flexible and thinner devices, this would benefit businesses and consumers as it would result in cheaper devices. "You could theoretically roll up your iPhone and stick it behind your ear like a pencil," Professor James Tour, of Rice University

SAMSUNG
 Samsung have been the biggest investors in researching Graphene with South Korean University and has already established a 25inch flexible touchscreen using this material.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLMWXBv5rY4

Samsung believe that there will be a dozen products in the next 5 years using Graphene, and so far do not know the limitations into how fast the speed of it can be. 'According to the Nobel prize committee, a hypothetical one-metre-square hammock of perfect graphene could support a four-kilogram cat - the hammock would weigh 0.77 milligrams, less than a cat's whisker, and would be virtually invisible' Richard Van Noorden, Nature Magazine 

 A piece of graphene aerogel - weighing only 0.16 milligrams per cubic centimeter - is placed on a flower. Photograph: Long Wei/EPA 

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/26/graphene-molecule-potential-wonder-material

The outsider club ___ researchers all over the world are using Graphene for; Solar- 50-100 times more efficient, Semiconductors- 50-100 times faster and Aircrafts-70% lighter.

Although there are many benefits in using Graphene as new material for many devices there have been various speculations. For example Alex Hudson has written for BBC news that what has been potential use for Graphene is just a few real world examples of it in action. "The material itself does not have a band gap, an essential property [meaning that graphene cannot stop conducting and be 'switched off', making it unusable in this way]. The applications of graphene and the application of silicon are in different domains." Hudson, A (2011). Dr Phaedon Avouris of IBM speaks about the idea of Graphene replacing Silicon is rather difficult to imagine and the problem is that Graphene has only been domonstrated on a small scale, therefore it may be 'stronger than steel' on a small scale but we must be careful about the potential on a larger scale.