Graphene has a lot of potential because it can be the strongest material and has many other exceptional characteristics.
There has been a lot of research around the material since 2004, when Professor Sir Andre Geim and Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov of the University of Manchester discovered and isolated a single atomic layer of carbon for the first time. The pair received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 in recognition of their breakthrough.
There need to be breakthroughs in production, handling and utilization of graphene before the commercial promise is realized.
The picture above shows the clean room handling that is usually needed for working with graphene.
The EU Graphene Flagship project has published a roadmap of applications they hope to develop by 2030.
The EU has a one billion euro Graphene Flagship project. They are working towards the overall goal of taking graphene and related materials (GRM) from the research in laboratories stage to industrial exploitation.
They are working on on integrating graphene with current technologies or devices with CMOS integrated photodetector for application for consumer electronics, spintronic device for data processing and storage or enhanced stability of perovskite photovoltaic cells.
There is promising results with the development of new devices, material and composites such as: * graphene-based magnetic, gas and bio-sensors for automobiles to medical applications * a tuneable sieve using a graphene oxide membrane for water desalination * a graphene-polymer sensor material that could be used for blood pressure monitoring * a graphene-based composite to be used as permeation barrier in an Airbus winglet * a graphene-based electrode material for energy devices such as batteries and supercapacitors.
SOURCES- EU Graphene Flagship
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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