This super strong and super light material will be a true technological revolution: it is only one carbon atom thick, but it is much stronger than steel and extremely flexible.
Since 2004, the year in which graphene was isolated by researchers, the list of the patents that contemplate its use is always longer.
Here are 10 applications with which graphene will change the world.
Fuel from the air
Andre Geim and his team, the same one that won the Nobel for isolating graphene, showed that this material can be used to make mobile electric generators that are powered by hydrogen extracted from the air thanks to the characteristics of extreme impermeability of graphene.
This means that thin films of graphene can be used to greatly improve the efficiency of proton exchange membranes or, essential components of fuel cell technology. Geim imagines a future of vehicles powered only by hydrogen stored in the atmosphere.
Much more drinking water
Graphene can help solve this the shortcomings world waters. Special membranes made with this material they are large enough to let water pass through and at the same time quite small to filter all its impurities, with a degree of efficiency thousands of times greater than current reverse osmosis membranes.
The first applications were impressive: in a demonstration some time ago a sample of water taken from the port of Sydney was made bacteriologically pure and excellent by drink afterwards a single filter. In one 2018 study Researchers from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) used a filter called “Graphair” to make seawater drinkable after a single pass.
“It doesn't matter how dirty the water is: this technology makes it drinkable instantly,” Dong Han, CSIRO
Electronics will change radically
Goodbye Silicon Valley: the future will be cradled by graphene. Silicon components are rapidly reaching the limits of their possible miniaturization, and the evolution of our systems electronics will eventually stagnate: the answer will come from the ultra-thin nature of graphene, which will make electronics faster and more powerful than ever, flexible and rollable screens, I quantum computers a mass product.
Thermal view
Do you remember the movie “Predator”? The protagonist was a bloodthirsty (and vaguely Rastafarian) alien which had the ability to see the world in infrared and map the heat of objects and people. Now, thanks to graphene, it is possible to acquire this mode: Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed graphene contact lenses, which allow the wearer to “see” the entire infrared spectrum, plus light visible and that ultraviolet.
Better condoms
Take and enjoy them all! Graphene has the ability to improve even life sexual. THE Condoms made with graphene, which has been under study for over 5 years (research is a bit slow despite substantial funds, including those of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) may be incredibly subtle and give a sensation of absolute absence, and at the same time super time safe (they simply cannot break).
A world without rust
Given its totally waterproof nature, it is clear that a layer of graphene paint It can be used to prevent corrosion and rust for life. The researchers showed what lids of fiberglass or copper covered with graphene perfectly contain even the most corrosive acids in the world.
Bright walls
The bright walls they could replace others light sources thanks to the development of technologies capable of creating hyper-thin screens. This sort of “luminous wallpaper” would have better diffusion and a consumption clearly lower.
“Using graphene instead of traditional metal electrodes will make the components easier to be recycled and eco-sustainable,” says Nathaniel Robinson of Linköping University, where the research is based.
Bionic man
To technology fanatics who feel at one with their devices, I would say that everything is yet to come: graphene research will lead to experiments in total integration with our systems organic. Long story short: completely imperceptible graphene devices implanted in our can read in the our system nervous or communicate on a cellular level. Imagine what it will be like to monitor your sports performance: nothing more than a pedometer.
Best hair dyes
It won't change the world like other things, but graphene holds promise also to provide better alternatives to toxic hair dyes.
Uno 2018 study from Northwestern University reports not only the ability of graphene to increase duration of colours, but it can also be done without any solvent organic or ingredients toxic. And it adds antibacterial and antistatic properties to the hair, as well as better heat dissipation.
The researchers sprayed a gel with graphene oxide on blonde hair and it left dry for 10 minutes. The layer of graphene "dye", just 2 microns thick, remained on the hair even after 30 washes, without causing any type of damage or wear to the hair.
Bulletproof shirts
By its nature, given its incredible strength, graphene is unavoidably involved in the research aimed at carrying out best bulletproof clothes. Protection made with layers of graphene offers double the impact absorption of Kevlar. Its lightness and flexibility will allow you to create clothing much more agile and flexible. And not only that: it will also be possible to improve protection on other objects, such as bulletproof windows.
