Graphene

Material of the future

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WHAT IS GRAPHENE?

Graphene is an allotrope of carbon consisting of a single layer of

carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. It is the basic
structural element of many other allotropes of carbon, such
as graphite, charcoal, carbon nanotubes and fullerenes.
It can be considered as an indefinitely large aromatic molecule, the
ultimate case of the family of flat polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Graphene has many uncommon properties. It is the strongest
material ever tested, conducts heat and electricity efficiently, and is
nearly transparent. Graphene shows a large and
nonlinear diamagnetism, greater than that of graphite.
Scientists theorized about graphene for years. It had been produced
unintentionally in small quantities for centuries through the use of
pencils and other similar graphite applications. It was observed
originally in electron microscopes in 1962, but it was studied only
while supported on metal surfaces. The material was later
rediscovered, isolated, and characterized in 2004 by Andre
Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at the University of
Manchester. Research was informed by existing theoretical
descriptions of its composition, structure, and properties. This work
resulted in the two winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 "for
ground-breaking experiments regarding the two-
dimensional material graphene.

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STRUCTURE

Combined graphite in single layers that measure just one atom

thick is called graphene; each of these molecules display a full
planar shape while a single graphene sheet is considered to be one
molecule. Due to the strength and durability of covalent bonds
amid carbon atoms, graphene has increased tensile power – tensile
which presents the capacity of how much one can stretch
something before it ruptures. Moreover, unlike nanotube or
buckyball, graphene has no volume since it is flat and levelled.
Nanotubes as well as buckyballs (Buckminsterfullerene) all have
their atoms settled on the surface allowing these to only interact
with molecules that surround them. As for graphene, all of its
atoms are also on the surface but can be easily accessed from both
sides, allowing more interaction between the molecules that
surround it. Amazingly, graphene can easily repair holes
accumulated in its sheets when being exposed to molecules that are
incorporated into carbon like hydrocarbons. Infused with pure and
authentic carbon atoms, these atoms align and coordinate perfectly
into hexagonal patterns until all the holes are completely filled.

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PROPERTIES OF GRAPHENE
ELECTRONIC PROPERTIES
One of the most useful properties of graphene is that it is a zero-
overlap semimetal that is with both holes and electrons as charge
carriers with very high electrical conductivity. Carbon atoms have a
total of 6 electrons; 2 in the inner shell and 4 in the outer shell. The
4 outer shell electrons in an individual carbon atom are available for
chemical bonding, but in graphene, each atom is connected to 3 other
carbon atoms on the two dimensional plane, leaving 1 electron freely
available in the third dimension for electronic conduction. These
highly-mobile electrons are called pi electrons and are located above
and below the graphene sheet. These pi orbitals overlap and help to
enhance the carbon to carbon bonds in graphene. Fundamentally, the
electronic properties of graphene are dictated by the bonding and
anti-bonding of these pi orbitals.
Tests have shown that the electronic mobility of graphene is very
high, with previously reported results above 15,000cm2/(V·s) and
theoretically potential limits of 200,000cm2/(V·s). However, the
quality of the graphene and the substrate that is used will be the
limiting factors. With silicon dioxide as the substrate, for example,
mobility is potentially limited to 40,000 cm2/(V·s).

MECHANICAL STRENGTH
Another of graphene’s stand-out properties is its inherent strength.
Due to the strength of its 0.142 Nm-long carbon bonds, graphene is
the strongest material ever discovered, with an ultimate tensile
strength of 130,000,000,000 Pascal’s compared to 400,000,000 for
A36 structural steel, or 375,700,000 for Aramid (Kevlar). Not only

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is graphene extraordinarily strong, it is also very light at
0.77milligrams per square metre for comparison purposes, 1 square
metre of paper is roughly 1000 times heavier. It is often said that a
single sheet of graphene (being only 1 atom thick), sufficient in size
enough to cover a whole football field, would weigh under 1 gram.
What makes this particularly special is that graphene also contains
elastic properties, being able to retain its initial size after strain. In
2007, Atomic force microscopic (AFM) tests were carried out on
graphene sheets that were suspended over silicone dioxide cavities.
These tests showed that graphene sheets with thicknesses of between
2 and 8 Nm had spring constants in the region of 1-5 N/m and a
Young’s modulus of 0.5 TPa.

OPTICAL PROPERTIES
Graphene’s ability to absorb a rather large 2.3% of white light is also
a unique and interesting property, especially considering that it is
only 1 atom thick. This is due to its aforementioned electronic
properties; the electrons acting like massless charge carriers with
very high mobility.
Due to these impressive characteristics, it has been observed that
once optical intensity reaches a certain threshold saturable
absorption takes place. This is an important characteristic with
regards to the mode-locking of fibre lasers. Due to graphene’s
properties of wavelength-insensitive ultrafast saturable absorption,
full-band mode locking has been achieved using an erbium-doped
dissipative soliton fibre laser capable of obtaining wavelength
tuning as large as 30 nm.
THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
Thermal transport in graphene is an active area of research which
has attracted attention because of the potential for thermal

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management applications. Early measurements of the thermal
conductivity of suspended graphene reported an exceptionally
large thermal conductivity of
approximately 5300 W/(m⋅K) , compared with the thermal
conductivity of pyro lytic graphite of
approximately 2000 W/m⋅K at room temperature. However, later
studies have questioned whether this ultrahigh value was
overestimated, and instead measured thermal conductivities
between 1500–2500 W/(m⋅K )for suspended single layer
graphene. The large range can be attributed to large measurement
uncertainties as well as variations in the graphene quality and
processing conditions. In addition, when single-layer graphene is
supported on an amorphous material, the thermal conductivity is
reduced to about 500–600 W/(m⋅K) at room temperature as a
result of scattering of graphene lattice waves by the substrate, and
can be even lower for few layer graphene encased in amorphous
oxide. Likewise, polymeric residue can contribute to a similar
decrease for suspended graphene to approximately 500–
600 W/(m⋅K) for bilayer graphene.

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DIFFERENT METHODS OF PRODUCTION OF
GRAPHENE

LIQUID PHASE AND THERMAL EXFOLIATION

Liquid phase and thermal exfoliation is a process in which graphite
is exposed to solvents or a thermal shock that will allow the
splitting of individual graphene flakes. Despite mass production is
already reached, during this process several layers are created, and
sometimes impurities are inserted in the flakes. One can also
collect smaller platelets of graphene by using nanotubes instead of
graphite but the process are longer and more expensive.

SYNTHESIS WITH SILICON CARBIDE

Silicon Carbide is a widely used material in the field of electronics.
By sublimating the atoms of Si, the remaining face of the SiC has
a graphite surface. Nowadays the number of layers of graphene
could be controlled and the quality is very high over a wide area
(crystallites of some hundreds of micrometres). Drawbacks are the
high cost of SiC and the high temperatures required to produce the
sublimation. The two factors will probably confine SiC graphene to
niche markets like high-frequency transistors or metrology
resistance standards.

CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION

CVD represents nowadays the easiest process to prepare high
quality graphene in large amount. After evaporation of carbon
atoms on a copper foil, the method allows transfer of graphene to a

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broad range of substrates. For instance it can be transferred to
silicon wafers were nano sized electronics can be designed. CVD
graphene does not contain many defects.
The quality over price ratio already allows CVD graphene to be
used for many applications like transparent and flexible
electronics. Also, since graphene is an efficient gas barrier, it is
used as an anti-corrosion coating.

MECHANICAL EXFOLIATION
Other types of graphene exist, like mechanical exfoliation of
molecular assembly, but there use is very limited. Indeed, with
mechanical exfoliation, for instance, you can only produce small
flakes. The interest is bounded to the academic level for very
specific experiments. The same limitation occurs with molecular
assembly for instance.

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THE APPLICATIONS AND USES OF GRAPHENE
Graphene, is as versatile a material as any discovered on Earth. Its
amazing properties as the lightest and strongest material, compared
with its ability to conduct heat and electricity better than anything
else, mean that it can be integrated into a huge number of
applications. Initially this will mean that graphene is used to help
improve the performance and efficiency of current materials and
substances, but in the future it will also be developed in conjunction
with other two-dimensional (2D) crystals to create some even more
amazing compounds to suit an even wider range of applications.
Because graphene is only 1 atom thick, it is possible to create other
materials by interjecting the graphene layers with other compounds
for example, one layer of graphene, one layer of another compound,
followed by another layer of graphene, and so on, effectively using
graphene as atomic scaffolding from which other materials are
engineered. These newly created compounds could also be
superlative materials, just like graphene, but with potentially even
more applications.

2D MATERIALS
After the development of graphene and the discovery of its
exceptional properties, these other 2D crystals (such as Boron
Nitride, Niobium Diselenide and Tantalum (IV) sulphide), can be
used in combination with other 2D crystals for an almost limitless
number of applications. So, as an example, if you take the compound
Magnesium Diboride (MgB2), which is known as being a relatively
efficient superconductor, then intersperse its alternating boron and
magnesium atomic layers with individual layers of graphene, it
improves its efficiency as a superconductor. Or, another example
would be in the case of combining the mineral Molybdenite (MoS2),
which can be used as a semiconductor, with graphene layers when

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creating NAND flash memory, to develop flash memory to be much
smaller and more flexible than current technology.
The only problem with graphene is that high-quality graphene is a
great conductor that does not have a band gap that is it can’t be
switched off. Therefore to use graphene in the creation of future
nano-electronic devices, a band gap will need to be engineered into
it, which will, in turn, reduce its electron mobility to that of levels
currently seen in strained silicon films. This essentially means that
future research and development needs to be carried out in order for
graphene to replace silicon in electrical systems in the future.

APPLICATIONS

BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING
Bioengineering will certainly be a field in which graphene will
become a vital part of in the future; though some obstacles need to
be overcome before it can be used. Current estimations suggest that
it will not be until 2030 when we will begin to see graphene widely
used in biological applications as we still need to understand its
biocompatibility and it must undergo numerous safety, clinical and
regulatory trials. However, the properties that it displays suggest that
it could revolutionise this area in a number of ways. With graphene
offering a large surface area, high electrical conductivity, thinness
and strength, it would make a good candidate for the development
of fast and efficient bioelectric sensory devices, with the ability to
monitor such things as glucose levels, haemoglobin levels,
cholesterol and even DNA sequencing. Eventually we may even see
engineered ‘toxic’ graphene that is able to be used as an antibiotic
or even anticancer treatment. Also, due to its molecular make-up and

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potential biocompatibility, it could be utilised in the process of tissue
regeneration.

OPTICAL ELECTRONICS
One particular area in which we will soon begin to see graphene used
on a commercial scale is that in optoelectronics; specifically
touchscreens, liquid crystal displays (LCD) and organic light
emitting diodes (OLEDs). For a material to be able to be used in
optoelectronic applications, it must be able to transmit more than
90% of light and also offer electrical conductive properties and
therefore low electrical resistance. Graphene is an almost completely
transparent material and is able to optically transmit up to 97.7% of
light. It is also highly conductive, as we have previously mentioned
and so it would work very well in optoelectronic applications such
as LCD touchscreens for smartphones, tablet and desktop computers
and televisions.
Currently the most widely used material is indium tin oxide (ITO),
and the development of manufacture of ITO over the last few
decades time has resulted in a material that is able to perform very
well in this application. However, recent tests have shown that
graphene is potentially able to match the properties of ITO, even in
current states. While this does not sound like much of an
improvement over ITO, graphene displays additional properties
which can enable very clever technology to be developed in
optoelectronics by replacing the ITO with graphene. The fact that
high quality graphene has a very high tensile strength, and is flexible
, makes it almost inevitable that it will soon become utilized in these
aforementioned applications.
In terms of potential real-world electronic applications we can
eventually expect to see such devices as graphene based e-paper

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with the ability to display interactive and updatable information and
flexible electronic devices including portable computers and
televisions.

ULTRAFILTRATION
Another standout property of graphene is that while it allows water
to pass through it, it is almost completely impervious to liquids and
gases. This means that graphene could be used as an ultrafiltration
medium to act as a barrier between two substances. The benefit of
using graphene is that it is only 1 single atom thick and can also be
developed as a barrier that electronically measures strain and
pressures between the 2 substances . A team of researchers at
Columbia University have managed to create monolayer graphene
filters with pore sizes as small as 5nm (currently, advanced
nanoporous membranes have pore sizes of 30-40nm). While these
pore sizes are extremely small, as graphene is so thin, pressure
during ultrafiltration is reduced. Co-currently, graphene is much
stronger and less brittle than aluminium oxide it could mean that
graphene is developed to be used in water filtration systems,
desalination systems and efficient and economically more viable
biofuel creation.

COMPOSITE MATERIALS
Graphene is strong, stiff and very light. Currently, aerospace
engineers are incorporating carbon fibre into the production of
aircraft as it is also very strong and light. However, graphene is
much stronger whilst being also much lighter. Ultimately it is
expected that graphene is utilized to create a material that can

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replace steel in the structure of aircraft, improving fuel efficiency,
range and reducing weight. Due to its electrical conductivity, it
could even be used to coat aircraft surface material to prevent
electrical damage resulting from lightning strikes.

PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
Offering very low levels of light absorption while also offering high
electron mobility means that graphene can be used as an alternative
to silicon or ITO in the manufacture of photovoltaic cells. Silicon is
currently widely used in the production of photovoltaic cells, but
while silicon cells are very expensive to produce, graphene based
cells are potentially much less so. When materials such as silicon
turn light into electricity it produces a photon for every electron
produced, meaning that a lot of potential energy is lost as heat.
Recently published research has proved that when graphene absorbs
a photon, it actually generates multiple electrons. Also, while silicon
is able to generate electricity from certain wavelength bands of light,
graphene is able to work on all wavelengths, meaning that graphene
has the potential to be as efficient as, if not more efficient than
silicon, ITO or gallium arsenide. Being flexible and thin means that
graphene based photovoltaic cells could be used in clothing; to help
recharge your mobile phone, or even used as retro-fitted
photovoltaic window screens or curtains to help power your home.

ENERGY STORAGE
One area of research that is being very highly studied is energy
storage. While all areas of electronics have been advancing over a
very fast rate over the last few decades, the problem has always been
storing the energy in batteries and capacitors when it is not being
used. These energy storage solutions have been developing at a

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much slower rate. The problem is this: a battery can potentially hold
a lot of energy, but it can take a long time to charge, a capacitor, on
the other hand, can be charged very quickly, but can’t hold that much
energy. The solution is to develop energy storage components such
as either a supercapacitor or a battery that is able to provide both of
these positive characteristics without compromise.
Currently, scientists are working on enhancing the capabilities of
lithium ion batteries by incorporating graphene as an anode to offer
much higher storage capacities with much better longevity and
charge rate. Also, graphene is being studied and developed to be
used in the manufacture of supercapacitors which are able to be
charged very quickly, yet also be able to store a large amount of
electricity. Graphene based micro-supercapacitors will likely be
developed for use in low energy applications such as smart phones
and portable computing devices and could potentially be
commercially available within the next 5-10 years. Graphene-
enhanced lithium ion batteries could be used in much higher energy
usage applications such as electrically powered vehicles, or they can
be used as lithium ion batteries are now, in smartphones, laptops and
tablet PCs but at significantly lower levels of size and weight.

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PROBLEMS WITH GRAPHENE
Despite the many success and promises of graphene, it is yet to be
widely used in mainstream devices. One of the big hurdles in this
area is producing graphene. There are many methods to produce
graphene, but they each have their problems: those that produce the
highest-quality graphene cannot produce enough, and those that
produce lots often give graphene that is too poor for most
applications.

The original isolation method was the now-famous sticky tape

method. Here, chunks of graphite are peeled away using sticky
tape, and these are then placed onto a flat surface. More sticky tape
is then pressed onto the chunks and peeled away again, giving
thinner chunks. If this process is repeated, eventually there are
flakes that are only a single atom thick. However, by this time the
flakes are very small and they are buried within a crowd of thick
flakes. This makes finding and investigating the flakes difficult.
They are, however, of a very high quality and so this graphene is
useful for early stage research. But it cannot make enough for any
applications.

The other steps in this direction came from chemical exfoliation. In

this method, graphite is oxidised, which then allows water to move
easily between sheets. With some stirring, the sheets then separate
in water quite easily. Now there are many single layer sheets
floating in solution. However, these sheets are not really graphene,
they are graphene oxide. Removing the oxygen from graphene
oxide is still providing many challenges and pristine graphene is
yet to be recovered from graphene oxide.

Recent efforts have been made to do this using high shear mixing.
A mixer creates forces on the graphite layers that is strong enough
to separate the sheets, and a surfactant can coat the sheets to stop

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them from restacking. Again, this method often produces thin
sheets, but the sizes are still too small for many applications.

A route to large area graphene that has lots of promise is chemical

vapour deposition. Here, metals are heated to 1000°C, and carbon-
containing gases like methane are introduced. The metals break the
gases down into carbon atoms, which then arrange onto the metal
surface to form graphene. This method produces high quality
graphene and has been scaled up to metre sizes. The downside here
is that the graphene is attached to a metal surface, and efforts to
transfer the graphene off have yet to be perfected. Further, growing
graphene in this way on a non-metallic substrate are still in their
infancy.

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POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Graphene is the wonder compound that’s being hailed as the

solution for battery life problems, the building block for paper-thin
Wi-Fi receivers, brain-computer interfaces, and many other major
technological breakthroughs.
So why isn’t it everywhere? Well, long story short, it’s incredibly
difficult and expensive to make. But that could possibly be about to
change thanks to a team working out of the prestigious MIT labs.
In a paper published in online science journal Applied Materials
and Interfaces, the team claims that is has managed to create the
world’s first roll-to-roll graphene production, paving the way for a
scalable, industrial method of graphene creation.
Up until this point, the creation of graphene has mostly happened
in tiny batches, using a process called vapour deposition which
involves heating copper foil which then has carbon deposited onto
it in combination with a mix of gases.
This process is time consuming, laborious, and expensive. Not to
mention it only creates small amounts of graphene, not the sheets
that are likely to be needed in real-life applications.
The new process uses roll-to-roll manufacture which is very much
what it sounds like, a sheet of copper is transferred from one roll to
another, with the vapour deposition happening in the middle of the
transfer.
This will allow for vast sheets of graphene to be produced. This
process is currently being used to create graphene for the purpose
of filtration.
Now, we’re certain that some people will get really jazzed about
the idea of a graphene filtration membrane, but we’re most excited
about the technological applications.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

www.wikipedia.com

www.graphenea.com

www.graphene-info.com

www.nanowerk.com

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