Latest articles on graphene science, industry, and applications
Graphene is one of the most heavily patented materials in history. Filings began accelerating shortly after the 2004 isolation work and have continued at a pace that far outstrips commercial revenue in the sector. For a company building a product with graphene …
Read articleGraphene’s isolation in 2004 did not merely produce a new material. It established that atomically thin crystals could exist as free-standing sheets at all, which opened a …
Gas separation membranes are governed by a stubborn tradeoff. Make a polymer membrane more permeable and it becomes less selective; make it more selective and throughput falls. …
Agriculture is proposed for almost every new material, and for a consistent reason: the addressable area is enormous. It is also the market with the least tolerance for cost per …
Packaging is a market measured in hundreds of billions of dollars and hundreds of millions of tonnes. It is also a market where a fraction of a cent per unit decides whether a …
The hydrogen sector attracts material proposals the way any capital-intensive emerging industry does, and graphene appears in several of them. The proposals are not equally …
The tire industry consumes carbon black by the millions of tonnes annually. It is the largest, oldest, and most sophisticated filled-composite market in existence, and every one of …
Textiles occupy an unusual position in the graphene story. Unlike aerospace or semiconductors, products are already on shelves and have been for several years. Unlike concrete, the …
Of all graphene’s proposed biomedical applications, biosensing has the cleanest physical rationale. Every atom of a graphene sheet is a surface atom. There is no bulk for a …
Graphene’s record in lithium-ion batteries is mixed, as we set out in Graphene in Batteries: Beyond the Hype. It is a useful conductive additive at low loadings and a poor …
Graphene’s environmental pitch is compelling: use a small amount to make concrete stronger, batteries lighter, coatings longer-lasting, and the avoided emissions dwarf …
Discussion of graphene safety is dominated by human health — inhalation, occupational exposure, the persistent and reasonable question of whether high-aspect-ratio carbon materials …
Most discussion of graphene safety concerns toxicology — what the material does in a lung or a cell. Regulation is a different question, with a different answer. A material can be …