Posted on 10/12/2012 3:24:30 PM PDT by neverdem
The graphene framework is not only light, it's flame resistant and mops up oil © Wiley-VCH
Chemists in China claim to have created the lightest graphene framework to date. The material, which is light enough to rest on a dandelion seed head, is also fire resistant and has record-breaking adsorption and capacitance.
The development of ultralight materials has exploded in recent years. Last year, engineers in the US presented a material made of hollow metallic tubes in a micro-lattice. With a density of 0.9mg/cm3, the material was 100 times lighter than styrofoam. Yet that record was beaten in July, when material scientists in Germany produced what they called aerographite: a network of carbon microtubes with a density of just 0.2mg/cm3.
Although the latest material, which has a density of 2.1mg/cm3, does not approach these records, it is the lightest graphene framework to date. Graphene, which took the 2010 Nobel prize for physics, is a two-dimensional layer of graphite just one atom thick arranged in a chickenwire pattern. Importantly, graphene has superlative electrical and mechanical properties, which scientists are eager to capitalise on.
Liangti Qu at the Beijing Institute of Technology, China, with colleagues from there and Tsinghua University, also in Beijing, have developed their graphene framework by regulating the graphenes carboncarbon bonds, using nitrogen as a dopant. To make their material they treat an aqueous suspension of graphene oxide with pyrrole an aromatic, nitrogen-containing compound in a steam oven. The pyrrole acts as a swelling agent, preventing the graphene oxide from self-stacking so that a large framework can be formed. The process leaves a gel, which the researchers freeze dry and then anneal at high temperatures.
The resultant material has the...
(Excerpt) Read more at rsc.org ...
"....this stuff is right up Joe Biden's alley"
WOG
Wiley oil gatherers...
This could be interesting!
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How strong is it for the weight (aircraft frames)?
Can it be used as a substrate to purify water (adsorption of toxins)?
Cheers!
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