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https://www.science.org/content/article/twenty-years-after-its-discovery-graphene-finally-living-hype>
"Manchester, England—On a rare sunny day in northern England, the National
Graphene Institute (NGI) here gleams like a five-story block of obsidian.
Squeezed into the University of Manchester’s sprawling downtown campus, the
research center is clad in almost 2000 lustrous black panels with small
hexagonal perforations—an architectural nod to the structure of the atom-thin
sheet of carbon that gives the building its name.
NGI exists because graphene was first isolated a short walk away in a
University of Manchester lab. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov presented it
to the world 20 years ago this month and later won a Nobel Prize for the work.
Since its unveiling, billions of dollars of R&D funding have flowed to
graphene, in a global race to exploit its peerless properties. It is better at
carrying electricity than any metal, a superb heat conductor, and hundreds of
times stronger than steel—selling points trumpeted in the marketing materials
of universities and companies alike.
Early on, researchers were not shy about promising graphene breakthroughs, with
predictions that it would enable superthin rollable TVs and space elevators,
and even supplant silicon in computer chips. “Expectations were very, very
high,” Geim says. “The companies I was involved in were mostly based on hype.”
For all its allure, graphene had drawbacks, not least that it is difficult to
incorporate into mass-produced devices without sacrificing its much-vaunted
properties. Many companies came and went, taking their futuristic graphene
dreams with them. Graphene supply has long outstripped demand, and major
manufacturing companies still haven’t leapt into graphene production, says
Conor O’Brien, a technology analyst at IDTechEx, a U.K. market research
consultancy that tracks the graphene industry.
Yet today, some graphene businesses seem to finally be finding their footing.
That’s partly because the name “graphene” is now applied to a plethora of other
substances—cheaper forms of carbon stacked in multiple atomic layers or
decorated with various chemical appendages. These heterodox forms of graphene
can now be found not only in consumer electronics, but also in concrete, pickup
trucks, and brain devices. “Graphene is now hundreds, maybe even a thousand
different things,” says Peter Bøggild, a graphene researcher at the Technical
University of Denmark.
But what of the iconic graphene monolayer itself? Even it may be emerging from
its slough of despond. Companies are getting better at making it cheaply and
consistently, and they are using atom-thin graphene to build magnetic sensors,
optical communication chips, and medical diagnostic devices, for example. “It’s
gone through the hype cycle,” says Natasha Conway, research director at U.K.
graphene device manufacturer Paragraf. “It’s gone up the hill, down into the
big valley—and now it’s coming out as people see that it really does have
value.”"
Via
Fix the News:
https://fixthenews.com/274-beautiful-confusion-billion-years/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
