Breakthrough products from graphene-polymer combination

As the world’s new wonder material, graphene is the thinnest electronic material ever developed. It consists of a layer of carbon atoms, with the atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern. It’s so light that it weighs only 0.77 grams per square metre. But graphene is 100 times stronger than steel of the same thickness. It is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity, better than copper. Its mechanical properties are undeniably better than other materials today.

Engineers at Duke University found that by attaching graphene to a stretchy polymer film, the material can be crumpled then unfolded, indicating properties that are suitable in various applications, including artificial muscles.

Before attaching the graphene to the rubber film, the researchers first pre-stretched the film to multiple times its original size. The graphene was then attached and, as the rubber film relaxed, the graphene layer compressed and crumpled. This caused part of the graphene to detach from the rubber layer and resulted in an attached-detached pattern measuring just a few nanometers in size. It was this pattern that allowed the graphene to unfold when the rubber layer was stretched out again.

Australian researchers found a way to make fibres from a composite material made of graphene that’s stronger than other available materials. Adding an equal amount of graphene and carbon nanotubes to a polymer produced a super-strong fibre that could be spun into the fabric used to make bulletproof vests. The fibres could also be used to strengthen other materials. Graphene, along with carbon nanotubes, offers a promising solution to getting a space elevator in place.

Other possibilities on the use of graphene are now being studied. The European Union awarded a €1 billion ($1.35 billion) grant to the Graphene Flagship consortium in a ten-year project bringing academics and industrialists together to commercialise graphene, and hopefully spur economic growth. The grant comes from the EU’s Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) programme, which aims to boost the introduction of advanced technology within the Eurozone. Nokia and Airbus are key industry players, but the consortium includes a total of 126 academic and industrial research groups in 17 European countries.