Graphene concept photo. Image: Foxstudio/Shutterstock
We talk a lot about graphene and why it promises to be a wonder material, but how do you actually make it?
If you’ve been following Siliconrepublic.com for a while now, you might have seen some articles suggesting that graphene – an atom-thick layer of graphite – will bring us a wealth of technological progress, from flexible screens to highly efficient water filters.
The only problem is that much of the technological breakthroughs it promises to make are still pretty experimental.
To give just one example, a team of researchers from Rutgers University-New Brunswick was only recently able to tame ‘wild’ electrons within the material. The original problem with graphene was that when electrons flowed through it, they travelled in a straight line with incredibly vast velocity, and most barriers that attempted to stop it were not strong enough.
So, what actually goes into the production of graphene? And how did Prof Andre Geim and Prof Kostya Novoselov from the University of Manchester isolate the first sample of graphene back in 2004?
Check out this infographic produced by the team at Futurism to find out more about graphene and what makes it the wonder material that offers so much promise.
Infographic: Futurism
