Is graphene starting to live up to its hype?

When graphene was first isolated in 2004 the so called “super material” was meant to change the world. The material has remarkable properties - it is 200 times stronger than steel, transparent, extremely light, flexible and also exhibits excellent electrical conductivity. Twenty years on it is starting to live up to the original hype and is being incorporated into a wide range of materials and products.

RAZOR’s Reya El-Salahi traveled to Cambridge to meet Prof. Sir Colin Humphreys, Co-founder and CSO of Paragraf, one of the first companies in the world to mass produce graphene-based electronic devices. Founded with Dr. Simon Thomas and Ivor Guiney in 2018, after a breakthrough they made at the University of Cambridge, the company now produces enough graphene to make 150,000 electronic sensors a day.

Graphene was first isolated by the University of Manchester's Prof. Sir. Andre Geim and Prof. Sir. Konstantin Novoselov. Manchester has become the UK’s home of Graphene and 2D materials research. Opening the National Graphene Institute in 2015 and the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre - known as the ‘GEIC’ in 2018. Apart from electronics, graphene is mostly incorporated into another material to lighten and strengthen it. It’s been used in building materials such as concrete, consumer products such as plastic bottles and in trainers, and also in the automotive and aerospace industries.

[rustynails]

Finally! Technology is always over estimated in the short term and underestimated in the long term.

[zadrik]

Looks like everyone at each company got a new branded lab coat before filming. lol

[chefscorner]

I remember reading about Graphene when it was first announced and thinking about the possibilities it opened up. I can't believe it's taken 20 years to start to see real development of some of the products. Hopefully I'll be alive long enough to see this and other 2D materials relatively commonplace. So the next 20 years or so had better be innovative! ;)

[mikeb]

The graphene batteries on HobbyKing right now are only ~10% lighter, but due to less electrical resistance generate substantially less heat and can therefore be discharged/charged faster, or not need cooling at all. Teslas wouldn't need a cooling system for their batteries.

[stixstudios]

Nice to hear a positive story for a change.

[kepeb]

Lead, Plastics, Asbestos. All revolutionary and popular with ubiquitous usage... What Happens next?

[jaymacpherson]

Brightens my day. Thank you for this news.

[SirusStarTV]

As we get smaller in semiconductors processing node we couldn't achieve more energy efficiency forever, new materials are needed to make chips faster.

[randomstranger]

Can you imagine the sound quality of speakers with those membranes? I can't wait for the future

[nanocreteinc]

Anyone who knows graphene, knows that it is a lot easier and safer to use when in a liquid suspension, as opposed to dry powder. Unfortunately, most liquid suspension products contain no more than 15g of graphene per GALLON of product. At NanoCrete, we have completely upended this paradigm with our X15 graphene jelly product. We suspend over 480 g of graphene PER GALLON with our proprietary, 18-month shelf-stable technology, ensuring you can utilize consistent graphene safely and for longer.

[lasangtamang]

It's very rare to see the graphene development these days..
Thank you!

[dawnlightening]

A spellbindingly interesting video! The sense of discovery and excitement of these researchers advancing the cutting edge of graphene and related material research comes through vividly. The presenter asked pertinent and thoughtful questions & organised the material very well into a coherent body. Thank you for uploading, and please make more of these videos.

[tuberroot]

Never forget to put on your safety glasses when interviewing scientists. It makes you questions sound so much more intelligent.

[ChrisJoestarr]

It’s crazy how I remember watching tons of videos about graphene back in 2008/2011 and the main issue with it was the mass production of it, now it looks like that’s been kinda solve, it will be amazing to see the actual implementation of the material truly from now on.

[oldmansailor]

Graphene seems to be have the same hype sales pitch as Teflon did back in the day. I really have fears that it may be even worse for the environment and health of our planet.

[clydecox]

Well it’s about time. Thanks for the update.

[cinemaipswich]

Vapour Deposition is used to make Silicon Chips, that we all know and love. In a vacuum, one can make a cloud of the element that you need, but it is several atoms thick. For metals this is easy, because they melt at a particular heat level. Carbon is very different, and I don't know how they make a cloud of Carbon, that deposits only one atom thick.

[daktaricox]

Best video. Thank you to everyone who made this video

[Gersberms]

Apparently I was way behind on graphene news. This is exciting!

[wqlbvph]

Good show with (for me at least) the right level of technical information to enable me to understand the fundamentals and their links to the applications.