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Graphene was discovered in 2004, and right away its remarkable mechanical and electrical backdrop made information technology a hot topic of research. Graphene could exist used for super-efficient batteries, solar panels, and much more. But subsequently thirteen years, we still don't have any of that. The trouble is that graphene is incredibly difficult to make, but researchers at Kansas Country University (KSU) might have stumbled upon a solution. Similar all the best science, it involves explosions.

This explosive method for producing graphene was non originally intended to practice whatever such thing. The KSU squad was working on creating carbon soot aerosol gels with combustion. The product of these experiments was a clumpy black gel that resembles "night affections food block." Upon closer inspection of the textile, Professor Chris Sorensen and his team realized information technology wasn't just any carbon in the gel, it was graphene.

Graphene is a single atom-thick carbon molecule, and the production of information technology has proven vexing. The earliest samples were isolated from a block of carbon with regular scotch tape, but producing usable amounts of it takes more advanced tools. Other methods involve treating graphite with harsh and expensive chemicals like sulfuric acid, sodium nitrate, potassium permanganate, or hydrazine. It also needs to be heated to at to the lowest degree 1,000 degrees Celsius to become the atoms lined up correctly. The KSU method, on the other paw, requires simply hydrocarbon gas, oxygen, and a spark plug.

The process is remarkably simple. The 17-liter aluminum chamber is filled with the mixture of gases, then the spark plug ignites them. The aerosol gel is then nerveless. It'southward extremely depression-density, but the bedchamber produces graphene by the gram rather than by the milligram similar other methods.

Since this was all discovered rather by accident, the equipment in employ is not ideal for collecting graphene. It currently takes several minutes for the chamber to be safe plenty to harvest the graphene gel. With amend equipment, the squad thinks it could get in at that place mere seconds subsequently the detonation. This may improve the quality of the graphene that is harvested. This is important because non all graphene is created equal. If a sample isn't pure, it can take more work to get in usable than it would have taken to just make a pure sample in the kickoff identify.

The Kansas team hopes to be able to meliorate the process to piece of work on an industrial level downward the road. The academy'southward research foundation has been granted a patent on the process.

Now read: What is graphene?