Graphene: The Next Big (But Thin) Thing
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
- If you haven't heard of it before, you have now. And it may prove to be the next big thing in materials science. SciShow explains what it is, why it's so awesome, and what challenges we face in harnessing its amazing properties.
----------
Like SciShow? Want to help support us, and also get things to put on your walls, cover your torso and hold your liquids? Check out our awesome products over at DFTBA Records: dftba.com/artis...
Or help support us by subscribing to our page on Subbable: subbable.com/s...
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook: / scishow
Twitter: / scishow
Tumblr: / scishow
Thanks Tank Tumblr: / thankstank
Sources:
www.ibtimes.com...
www.pnas.org/co...
www.understandi...
www.newscientis...
www.physics.org...
www.scientifica...
How I imagine graphene was first made:
"Hey let's see how thin we can get this graphite lol"
"Lol ok"
**makes 1 atom thick layer**
"holy fuCK IT'S ONe laYEr THIcK"
you are hilarious...
lmao
next it will only be quark thick
*THICC
Quark thickness...
For one, quarks are a theory. A very accepted theory, but still...
How could they bond?
Man, as a person with some understanding of technical science, but not nearly enough to make this so readily accessible, I just want to point out how incredible and valuable this show is.
The execution is always flawless (even when it's not the amazing Hank!), and the writing is superb. The information is presented in a perfectly understandable way. Thank you guys!
so, is it just me or is carbon like, the most versatile and effective solution to pretty much everything ever?
Why do you think life uses it so much?
It's because a lot of elements can bond to it.
if not for carbon life wouldn't exist, so...
Dylan Rogers As far as we know. I assume you forgot to put that at the end of your sentence.
Mike The Gamer If you're referring to extraterrestrial life, then considering life here on earth is made up of pretty much the most abundant elements on the universe, I'd wager life across the universe should be pretty much based on the same or pretty similar elements, carbon most likely being among them.
It also can be used as a capacitor, so a bank of them can be an efficient, quick charge battery for cars.
I would love to have supercapacitors replace batteries. So far the only ones created tend to blow up quite often but once that's fixed we'll be charging our phones, laptops, etc in 10 seconds and electric cars in a matter of minutes
Alexander Pavel... charging will still take a while, you have to get enough actual energy in. Unless you really kick up the amps.
Alexander Pavel SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!
dangerouslytalented Well a standard US plug can give at least 15 amps (most modern homes go to 20). If you could get 10 amps without the adaptor, cable, or phone connector from catching on fire you could charge it in a matter of seconds (probably be easier to remove the supercapacitor to charge in this case)
*****
But can't a caps discharge rate be regulated with resistors ?
I know they leak out over time anyway, but with the ability to jam those watts in as fast as possible and draw them out over a day they might be a viable solution and considerably lighter than traditional electrolyte batteries.
Tape + Pencil Lead = Super Material
I wonder what happenens with a computer + stacky tape
nothing great...
It's doable, it takes alot of work, but how do you put it to use? how do you know if your graphene is stacked properly to create a graphene wire?
The graphite in pencils isn't actually pure graphite. IIRC it's embedded in some kind of ceramic.
First, learn how to mass produce graphene, second, GRAPHENE EVERYTHING.
+L0b5terlick China is producing them. But a A4 sheet is still a couple tens of dollar.
As a materials engineering student I learnt 2 things. Graphene and graphene oxide is great, but the practical uses are really limited. Also every material made in China is of terrible quality.
+Jaw Ji lol thats not true.
you dont know anything about graphene
+commonsensedatcom it is a new material who knows anything about it other than lab test....
Hank, I've been away from RUclips a long time now. Last I watched either you or John it was in the early days of Vlogbrothers. I'm happy to see how well you both have done and that your videos are as informative and entertaining as ever. You are both an endless source of knowledge and enjoyment.
Dude. You're my best friend. The show gets better and better. Thanks
Surprisingly, we are already mass-producing it! Basically, carbon is heated up to 1,100 Celsius in a copper chamber, and voila! Actually it's not that simple, but we are making larger quantities of it.
Can I just take a quick sec to appreciate SciShow’s inclusion of closed captioning? Cuz I’m very grateful.
This will launch us forward into a new age.
Imagine spaceships coated with this. Made of a light material (maybe plastic?) and coated with graphene... My Christ, our world could change in the next few years.
Did you miss the perfect heat conductor part?
ady gombos
Nope, but perhaps something between the two... like an insulator maybe....
+Whoami691 They've made a type of Areogel that combines traditional aerogel and Graphene...effectively making the lightest, strongest, and(one of the) most heat resistant substances ever.
+Whoami691
Why plastic? Carbon fiber! Carbon, carbon, carbon... Put all this carbon in the atmosphere to work.
I really don't think it'll ever find a practical use.
Scientific journals already hardly mention it.
I recently graduated from materials engineering degree, and although I used graphene a lot but I really don't think it'll ever catch on. Just like Carbon Nano Tubes.
This was more intricate and detailed than most SciShow videos and I appreciated that.
I heard there was a bank vault made of graphene and the burglar got into it using only an eraser.
+Endymion766 interesting idea! hahaha
I've watched Scishow for a while, not for the ending of course but for the content. Something I just don't like is telling people they can subscribe and all that. No shit, they will if they feel like it. What's even more... stupid than anything else is when they're linking a page or say like "click here to subscribe" when there's a button for it under the channel name.
Great video, loved it!
My Functional Materials professor once said: "If you want you research funded you gotta put Graphene in there! No Graphene, no money!"
I seriously cannot wait until we figure out how to mass-produce this stuff and apply it. The world WILL CHANGE.
You may not have to wait long: www.irishtimes.com/news/science/world-first-for-irish-graphene-researchers-1.1766739
they altredy learnt it about 2 years ago,rememb nokia?
I hope you haven't been holding your breath.
@@EricJW Still waiting.
@@strangewayfaringstranger In my defense, I did say "may."
Carbon is the reason we can love, because carbon is the basis of life.
Carbon is love, carbon is life.
And also other cool things, too.
SciShow is love Scishow is life
STOP STALKING ME I JUST FINISHED WATCHING A VIDEO ON GRAPHENE WHEN THIS POPPED UP
Out of all the amazing uses for graphene, I am most excited for supercapacitors. I have researched these for a very long time, and although we don't have them perfected yet, it'll be an amazing technology of the future.
now its in you're blood!
Good to have you back Hank!
Graphene has so much potential and I hope I'm still alive the day someone does something amazing with it
So then if we stack layers of graphene we could multiply it's potential and then...wait, that's just graphite...drats, I'm really confused on how anyone is suppose to actually handle, or shape, or generally apply something one atom thin. Like, is it even visible?
No, because in graphite there is a distance between the layers. Humans could stack it much tighter to make graphene.
Well yes it is visible, just not with any light based microscope. Anyways, if you watched their last video about Moore's transistor invention, you could see that it would be very possible to apply.
You can stack graphene. Same way you can stack paper. You can keep stacking thousands of sheets of paper, but the will never become wood. Same logic.
Yeah it's really interesting because stacked layers of graphene have some pretty unique properties the higher you go. The most it's been studied is up to four layers. =P
Also spotting single layer graphene on SiO2 is a pain.
Starbattle64 Actually no... if you stack graphene sheets you will get graphite. Just give it enough sheets.
Graphene is super cool, we're really excited to see what the potential applications turn out to be!
So would you be able to see a sheet of graphine if it was laid on a table? Or can you only see it with a microscope due to its small size? Also is it possible to go backwards and make graphite out of graphine by sticking layers of it on top of each other?
So many questions.
im pretty sure that the only way youre gonna be able to see a sheeet of graphene is with an electron microscope, light microscopes just plain cannont magnify enough to see stuff thats thhat small
and i dont see why you cant stack graphene to make graphite ... but why would you want to?
Can you see atoms infront of you right now? Cause they're there! No you wouldn't be able to see a single layer, if you were to stack them together to make something as thick as a 1mil plastic sheet then yes you would probably be able to see it.....Not sure what color it would be....Maybe clear like a diamond?
If you stack sheets of graphene on top of eachother you just get graphite .... if you made a 1 mm thick sheet ... it would just be a sheet of pencil lead
Andy Vander Weide
You'd need an insulator between each sheet.
Andy Vander Weide
Not exactly. Graphite is misshaped and broken throughout. So the graphene in the graphite is broken into tiny pieces. So if you took large layers of graphene and stacked then yes you'd get graphite, but it would be a hell of lot stronger and more conductive then normal graphite. So it wouldn't be "just a sheet of pencil lead". It would basically be a sheet of armor plating.
SciShow Creators =) big time enjoyer of the show here, i've seen a lot of video's about solar roadways and whatnot but not allot talk about the science behind them, obviously we've already talked about solar power but what about the other technologies in the solar roadway concept... maybe we can go a little more in depth and get a little more detail on this really cool and awesome concept.
This better not take 50 fucking years i want me my phone that charges in a couple seconds and a computer that has a cpu that runs at 100 ghz it would be a revolution in tech and its literally right on the horizon. come on scientists don't make me figure this shit out myself -.-
You sir speak the truth for everyone
lol, its easy to create, its hard to mass produce, when u find out how to mass produce it, I guarantee you the gas company and etc companies will try to take over by killing you lol. graphene can literally change the future technology.
if u got a couple billion dollars u can fund a company to make this because making one sheet of graphene an atom thick and what like a centermeter long can cost like a thousand (I might be wrong on the size) all I'm saying is it isn't cheap
I will say this, that 100ghz processor would be hotter than fucking hell.
I hope they can use 3D printers to print this, that would be cool.
Yet it would be hard to design a 1 cell printer for just graphene
2:44 starts talking about what Graphene is good for for anyone answering chem discussion questions
5 years on, still no graphene around. . .
Graphene is surely one of the most amazing novel materials out there. We investigated the possibility to use it as an ultra-thin corrosion resistant coating as graphene itself is chemically quite inert and without defects a perfect diffusion barrier. Of cours the reality was bit more complex -few defects still existed even in the nearly perfect graphene and thats where the troubles started! Localized galvanic corrosion of the metal substrate occurred in these nano-scaled defects and this was promoted by the vast area of surrounding graphene. So in order to overcome this problem we had to make a nano-composite coating using an electroactive polymer and graphene and that caused the coating to be "slightly" thicker than the single atom layer of graphene. Yet, it seemed to work at around 200 nm thickness, which is still quite thin.
Now, talking about making bullet proof vests with graphene - well it wouldnt work! The perfect graphene is 2 dimensional and can only attach itself to a substrate with Van der Waals forces, that are quite weak to be honest. So if you take a bullet then the perfect graphene simply wraps itself around the bullet and travels with it through your body. Possibly it also leaves graphene flakes inside your body and the active edges of graphene make it somewhat carciogenic. So even if you somehow survive the bullet, the graphene may still kill you with cancer.
394 Likes - 0 Dislikes
EVERYBODY LOVES SCIENCE!
People who think that graphene is the thinnest black material obviously haven't heard of Aldi value bin liners.
So the Mithril in Lord of the rings was made of graphene ,eh ? Well , it was kinda shiny and grayish.
graphene tools or weapons would be humorously garbage and weak
I am happy to see that Andre Geim, like myself, writes his name on his office supplies with a White Out pen.
Wait, if it's one atom thick, how can we get it as thick as plastic wrap in that example with the elephant and the pencil?
The same way you can get paper to be a few inches thick. Add more layers
Wouldn't it just end up being graphite then?
tredub111213 Yes but different. Normally the graphene in graphite is broken into really small chuck that are set every which way. If you would to make it into a perfect stack you'd basically have "supergraphite"
So the example is very misleading because it assumes that the graphene sheet is perfect and an infinite plane. The example just gives you an idea of the the pressure that the graphene can withstand. (P = (Weight of Elephant)/(Area of pencil point)) www.sciencemag.org/content/321/5887/385.short
I have faith graphene will shape the next century more than people imagine. Great video!
what about bio-engineering a living thing to produce graphene? life is great at making atomic scaled things in large quantities
cubedude76 if a living organism was descovered which created graphene or had the potentual to do so then it would be farmed but right now that has not been discovered
@2:23 "wendurrrrrwoolllls" - jheez man, dat pronunciation
What does it mean to have "low quality" graphene?
It is not just one big layer, but it is broken into many sheets and not all bonds are where they should be on a perfect layer.
I head about graphene ages ago and I was wondering when sci show would make a video on it. I also can't wait to see its applications in the future
could it be used as armor ? i mean if it takes and elephant to break trough a layer thick as a plastic wrap imagine if it was 1cm thick than it could be used for everything from space ships to tanks !
Milos Ljubicic Is that literally a sheet of graphene as thick as plastic wrap, or is that using it's resistance to breakages relative to its 1 atom thick state.
You can't stack graphene on itself or you just end up with graphite and the layers are bonded so weakly a bullet would eviscerate it, so what do you put between the layers to prevent them moving over each other?
+Shen The Eye of Twilight how about alternating sheets of graphene and a different ceramic like carbon nanotubes
+Shen The Eye of Twilight
Natural graphite is soft because the graphene sheets it is made up of are very small and thus part easily for things moving between them. Using large artificial sheets of continuous graphene to build up graphite plates would create a very hard to penetrate barrier. Admittedly, it would probably lose its highly conductive properties due to the interference between the sheets, but just because they are stacked does not somehow break them (If I recall correctly the material is stable enough to keep the layers separate, barring oxidation).
Chemical Vapor Deposition processes are being developed that can create very high quality sheets of infinite length, so body armor is not out of the question. I'm not sure exactly how stiff graphene becomes as layers are added, but i'd imagine after the millions needed for a noticeable amount are put together it acquires some firmness.
By the way, for a 1cm film, you'd need approximately 10 million layers of graphene, at which point it'd probably resemble plastic.
Are you the skipper penguin from Madagascar giving a lecture on graphene? Great voice and great video!
So you said that this stuff is strong... ON ITS SURFACE... What about tearing?? Can I tear a piece of this stuff more/less easily than peirceing it?
the layer he is talking about is a thick layer of graphene. Which kind of destroys the point. It would be a kind of graphene laminate.
Keep this in mind: io9.com/graphene-miracle-material-could-be-toxic-to-humans-786847545
Also..
gizmodo.com/move-over-graphene-the-wonder-conductor-of-the-future-1471032563
He was actually taling about a SINGLE layer of the stuff, and that didn't answer my question at all >_> (dangerouslytalented)
Charmle Hedgehog
"as thick as plastic wrap", that's what he said
dangerouslytalented
A graphene laminate would have most of the same properties of graphene. The reason graphite is a poor material is that the graphene sheets in it are small, full of imperfections and randomly oriented. Carbon nanotubes are essentially just rolled up graphene sheets. Because they are so small, they tend to be defect free and are the strongest theoretically known substance in existence. However, despite decades of research, we still can't produce CNTs more than a couple mm in length. It may be a while before we can make large scale graphene sheets.
Hank Green you have made my year!
Silicon transistors were first made in 1930 and nobody really used them until 1950. Let's face it, we won't get to enjoy 1000Ghz graphene chip laptops :(
It'll probably go faster this time but yes, we're not going to be seeing graphene chips in the 2015 laptop lineup.
We never had an idea of what silicon transistors could do. Our horizon of science and possibilities has expanded and we can utilize things quicker now. Once we can create layers of it effectively it will be everywhere.
dude like 20 years ago we had 1000$ cpu's whose would just clock at 5mhz , now we have 5ghz processors , however if grapene comes to life we are in for a insane 5thz in under 20years for sure , but with silicon , i am sure we will see some clever implementations and better architecture but still graphene is the future one way or other
Chitz You have a good point, but I think you think 20 years ago is longer than it really is. 20 years ago I was watching the final episode of Star Trek TNG on my Pentium 75, which cost less than $300.
i am 19
1st time viewing a video of this series, and the presentation is spot on. Hank is the host/executive producer is an ideal spokesman for this type of material. Keep'em com'n.
WAIT THIS IS HANK!!!!!!!!!!!
I've been watching the development of Graphene and carbon nanotubes for years now. I'm very excited!
wouldn't the outermost layer of diamond have free electrons?
Nabre Labre yeah, it would probably bond with 2hydrogen or oxygen to satisfy the outside but it isnt necessary.
Yeah I'm thinking the same.
i look forward to this as computer admin i love to see stuff better then we have right now
For all of the prospective billionaires that watched this video,
if we want to try to come up with a way to manufacture graphene, we can just buy pencils and use that graphite?
Or maybe there else is something that would easier?
Ill definitely have this in the back of my head. Would be a good way to get your name out there.
_raises hand_ me... I love orange soda! go to Sonic and ad vanilla. O_O it's awesome
That doesn't work, graphite from pencils can't be used as graphene since graphite is broken up pieces of graphene weakly held together, you would need an actual nearly completely pure (silicon needs to be 99.999999999% pure) sheet of graphene to be used in transistors.
***** A 15 year discovered a new way to detect 3 types of cancer and the test costs 15 cents. Don't be so pessimistic
crimsonIce That sounds expensive.
How much is a small brick of graphite?
Nico Mariño Yes you can make it like that, as well as various other methods, but that methods is essentially the same as using tape to slowly pull apart the graphene, aka exfoliation. However, I could not find where in the article it said it used pencil graphite.
I've been waiting for someone to make a video about this
Damm so close
Better luck next time
U commented fast as hell
And I am on my iPod lol
The frontier of Awesomeness!!!
3d print graphene... problem solved
To do that, you would need a printer with components that are far, far smaller than we can manufacture right now. And it would be time consuming, you would need billions of atoms to make anything that you could find useful.
Yeah obviously printing single atoms is easy
Yep, very difficult to 3d print something that thin
dangerouslytalented Finn Mertens EPmessi9800 Woosh.
CrispySergeant So if I wanted jokes, I should go to an educational channel. I'll remember that. Thanks.
Great Video and explained very well!
Computeres 10x as fast and small! Gimme gimme!
Research is being done on the mechanical exfoliation of non-functionalized graphene via ultrasonic waves at my university, but the chief issue is the conglomeration of the graphene sheets into irregularly distributed chunks when suspended within the retaining solvent.
How many of you know that Hank Green's brother is John Green, who wrote The Fault in Our Stars...
That would be most of us.
Most everybody knows, because of vlogbrothers, I would think.
Good book, baaaaaaaad movie.
fire me
Speaking of touch screens, I'd love to see a video on what is the science behind them.
I pass manchester university like everyday, who would have known.....
@joker yea that's me
It all builds up to the goal of obtaining the super-duper awesome nanotubes.
Could you do condoms of this material or it would be to expensive???
gabriel cruz you probably wouldn't be able to feel anything
Nice subject, keep up with the good work :)
First
Heck yeah we do I was the first, second, and third to comment on a RUclips video about science. Can't wait to tell my mommy.
***** no, we have a winner.
John Hunter Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
Congratulations, you win a holiday in North Korea!
&B^{P>
StevieRay9O no he doesnt
i'm loving this new information about graphene
Slow down Mr. science guy. You sound like a livestock Auctioneer. :)
Hank, you're back
I fell asleep watching this junk
Why did you decide to watch this then.
Fooooooools.
Thank you for the video. Please do more about computers and their future like this one.
I can't wait for the future!
Great explanation
Ooo, what a pretty phase diagram! One of my favorite kinds of diagram
Nothing beats Graphene. We are using it on our graphene polymer and have the perfect Transparent conductive graphene polymer in the LitCoat electroluminescent paint.
I love this guy
This video needs a sequel. Graphene has been discovered to be an insanely effective water filter and that it can sieve hydrogen right out of the air (which would revolutionize the practicality of hydrogen fuel cells). There's also super-smart chemist people figuring out how to mass-produce it by putting graphite, deionized water, and soap through a blender, and using solvents and centrifuges afterwards to separate out effective graphene.
wow you explained very well about graphene sir, tq:)
You all should see the design of this element on cars and cell phones that most are planning to produce. It looks so high tech.
I'm a 16 year old currently doing research on functionalized derivatives of graphene to optimize proton conductivity in PEM fuel cells. We produce graphene in the form of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) it's not pure graphene since it has some functional groups like graphene oxide, but it's very close. We synthesize graphene oxide, sonicate it in solution, and then add sodium borohydride to reduce the solution making a an RGO solution. Under the right conditions, this could be a very effective method for producing a quasi-graphene substance in bulk
Great stuff!
Could you elaborate on how touch screens work? specifically the iphone would be great. Also could you look into the recent attempts by researches to make graphene transistors? I'm interested in seeing what ideas are being put into motion.
About to check citations for further Info.
Love the show - long time subscriber.
Cheers
As a materials engineering graduate I really think neither graphene and grapheneoxide will never have any uses outside of the lab. It's the new carbon nano tubes.
Your thinking is highly flawed. We are where we are today because people like you said things like this were impossible.
I actually grow graphene on a low pressure chemical vapor deposition system at my internship! It's a very interesting 2D material!!
3 years later and graphene production is exponential!
ABOUT TIME
Fantastic vid! Im learned
I'm just can't stop imagining elephants with pencils poking holes in this supermaterial.
I am quite surprised that you folks didn't mention the half dozen or so alternatives to graphene that have more attractive properties. Silicene, stanene, Ni3, etc... all have the same basic properties of graphene, and they're doing some of those things better than graphene has done already.
The key here seems to be the relatively new foray into the study of two dimensional atomic structures rather than which particular material is best. Don't get me wrong, I think the advancement of graphene is profoundly fantastic, but the production issues with it may have already been solved simply by switching to another compound. Ni3 in particular, is far more abundant and easier to produce.
I'm not used to knowing more about a subject than this show, so please correct me if I got any of that wrong.
I've heard that ibm did some testing chips with graphene and it seems that the biggest problem at the moment is that the transistors have a hrad time switching themselves off again after being activated.
Also graphene is pretty hard but brittle like a ceramic when the grid isn't perfect
And samsung if finding out a way of mass producing the stuff for computer chips
Pure graphite isn't used to make pencil lead. Pencil lead is mostly binder. Graphite is lustrous and conducts electricity well. It is also very easy to cleave since the interlayer bonds are quite weak.
FINALLY. Thank you. :D
Took you guys long enough to talk about the amazing-ness of graphene
Whenever we have these hurdles in science, you know this could be big but you just need to figure out how to make it more efficient/faster/better, I have no doubts that we will eventually get there. I just hope it's within my lifetime and when we do sort out these problems I'm still young enough to adapt to the emerging technologies.
I already knew what graphene was before this. yay!
I'm so excited for graphene this is the greatest thing I've heard all day.
Great one
I did not expect to see Hank Green here :O
Ok.I am studying electrical and electronic engineering.and i just found what i want to work on after i graduate!
So glad that here, 4 years later, graphene is everywhere and is the true savior of modern times, found in everything and making our lives better in every conceivable way. Combined with fusion energy, it is truly the world of tomorrow, today!