Dr. Zina Jarrahi Cinker, Executive Director of the National Graphene Association (NGA), talks to AZoNano about the current state of the graphene market and how global standards can help sercure the materials future.
Tuneable pressure effects associated with changing interlayer distances in two-dimensional graphene oxide (GO)/reduced GO (rGO) layers are demonstrated through monitoring the changes in the spin-crossover (SCO) temperature (T1/2) of [Fe(Htrz)2(trz)](BF4) nanoparticles (NPs) incorporated in the interlayer spaces of the GO/rGO layers. The interlayer separation along the GO to GO/rGO-NP composites to rGO series decreases smoothly from 9.00 Å (for GO) to 3.50 Å (for rGO) as the temperature employed for the thermal reduction treatments of the GO-NP composites is increased. At the same time, T1/2 increases from 351 K to 362 K along the series. This T1/2 increment of 11 K corresponds to that observed for pristine [Fe(Htrz)2(trz)](BF4) NPs under a hydrostatic pressure of 38 MPa. The influence of the stacked layer structures on the pseudo-pressure effects has been further probed by investigating the differences in T1/2 for [Fe(Htrz)2(trz)](BF4) that is present in the composite as larger bulk particles rather than as NPs.
The extraordinary electronic, optical and mechanical properties of graphene are well known, but various chemical modifications must be made if the material is to find application in electronic devices. Speaking at the 4th International Conference on Advanced Graphene Materials at AEM2017, Monica Craciun of the University of Exeter described her group’s work with fluorinated graphene and “GraphExeter”, a few-layer form intercalated with ferric chloride (FeCl3).
Graphene and its analogues are potential candidates in various applications, such as photovoltaics, catalysis, fuel cells, sensors, and batteries. But a detailed understanding of graphene needs accurate surface characterization. And this can only be provided through advancements in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) instrumentation.
Controlling electronic current is essential to modern electronics, as data and signals are transferred by streams of electrons which are controlled at high speed. Demands on transmission speeds are also increasing as technology develops. Scientists from the Chair of Laser Physics and the Chair of Applied Physics at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have succeeded in switching on a current with a desired direction in graphene using a single laser pulse within a femtosecond ¬¬ – a femtosecond corresponds to the millionth part of a billionth of a second. This is more than a thousand times faster compared to the most efficient transistors today.
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” wrote Benjamin Franklin in 1789. To that we might add: corrosion.
The inevitable march of destruction suffered by materials exposed to the environment has been vexing metallurgists and material scientists at least since ancient Rome, when Pliny the Elder wrote at length about “ferrum corrumpitur,” spoiled iron. Corrosion comes in many guises; rust is the best known.
The European Commission’s Future and Emerging Technology Flagships Graphene and the Human Brain Project will showcase their latest remarkable achievements at the Tallinn Digital Summit 2017.
A Chinese scientist aims to unlock the secrets of 2-D material
For more than a decade, Chinese physicist Zhang Yuanbo has been hunting for two-dimensional materials in our three-dimensional world.
Zhang, 39, is one of the early scientists who tried to extract and analyze graphene, a carbon allotrope in the form of an atomic scale.
Graphene is hundreds of times stronger than steel. Pioneering work on it earned a Nobel Prize and opened the door to a whole new world of physics research in 2-D materials.
“Scientists have since found more than 200 2-D materials,” says Zhang, who works at Fudan University in Shanghai. “The field is very active. Almost all the universities I know pursue some kind of research related to it.”
In a previous Nanowerk Spotlight (“Nanotechnology for neural interfaces“) we looked at the use of nanotechnologies in the field of brain-machine interfaces, their comprehensive design principle is to augment or restore one or more of the three interrelated biological complications that arise from neural impairment: sensory malfunction, loss of motor control, or disease-elicited intellectual changes.
Researchers from Finland and Taiwan have discovered how graphene, a single-atom-thin layer of carbon, can be forged into three-dimensional objects by using laser light. A striking illustration was provided when the researchers fabricated a pyramid with a height of 60 nm, which is about 200 times larger than the thickness of a graphene sheet. The pyramid was so small that it would easily fit on a single strand of hair. The research was supported by the Academy of Finland and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of China.