A team of researchers at MIT, Raytheon BBN Technologies and Columbia University have used graphene to design a fast yet highly sensitive bolometer that can work at room temperature and may even be less expensive. Bolometers are devices that monitor electromagnetic radiation through heating of an absorbing material. Most such devices have limited bandwidth and must be operated at ultralow temperatures, which damages their usefulness.
Researchers at MIT and Israel’s Technion have used graphene to devise a new way of enhancing the interactions between light and matter, in a work that could someday lead to more efficient solar cells that collect a wider range of light wavelengths, and new kinds of lasers and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that could have fully tunable color emissions.
Many people will have heard of graphene, even if they don’t know exactly what it is. Graphyne, on the other hand, is not as well known. In this article, we look at what both of these materials are and what beneficial properties they exhibit. This article also looks at the difference between these interesting materials.
A research team from Japan has developed an integrated, high-speed and on-chip blackbody emitter based on graphene. The team reports that the device operated in NIR region including telecommunication wavelengths. A fast response time of ~ 100 ps, which is ~ 105 higher than the previous graphene emitters, has been experimentally demonstrated for single and few-layer graphene, the emission responses can be controlled by the graphene contact with the substrate depending on the number of graphene layers.
Researchers from Kyoto University and Osaka University report for the successful synthesis of helical nanographene. These graphene constructs previously existed only in theory, so successful synthesis may offer applications like nanoscale induction coils and molecular springs for use in nanomechanics.
An interesting project under the H2020 initiative is GRAPHENART – focused on examining graphene as an anti-fading agent for the protection of artworks. The project, funded at about €150,000, started at October 2017 and will go on until March 2019.
Researchers at Rice University have demonstrated the mechano-chemical assembly of functionalized graphene layers into 3D graphitic solids (“graphite pellets”) via room temperature and low energy consuming processing. The pellet material is reportedly stronger and lighter than commercial graphite electrodes and could be promising for electrical storage applications with high energy and power densities.
Researchers from Freie Universität Berlin, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and Universität Ulm have defined the mechanism on which the wet chemical synthesis of graphene from graphite is based. They succeeded in solving the basic problem of how to separate an individual layer of graphene from a graphite crystal.
Researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands have managed to bring two graphene layers so close together that an electric current spontaneously jumps across. This could enable scientists to study the edges of graphene and use them for sequencing DNA with a precision beyond existing technologies.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have developed a solution to a problem that has been setting back commercialization of a new kind of batteries. Lithium-metal batteries can take up to 10 times more charge than conventional lithium-ion batteries, but have not yet been commercialized due to the fact that lithium is deposited unevenly on the electrodes while charging and discharging. This buildup cuts the lives of these batteries too short to make them viable, and more importantly can cause the batteries to short-circuit and catch fire.