I see articles about how graphene is this super material that can hold a ton of weight and is magnitudes stronger than steel. would the stuff be bullet proof? would you even be able to see it causes it’s 1 atoms thick ? can you even feel it?
In: Chemistry
Not only is it bullet proof, it’s super-light and as a fringe benefit has infrared diffusing properties… [https://graphenecomposites.com/](https://graphenecomposites.com/)
Pretty much the only negatives to graphene are that even though you can transfer current with it it’s very difficult to turn it “off” when you’re using in that manner. Also if you’re using it for things on the molecular level it’s edges are jagged and sharp enough to rip cell walls apart. Also it deteriorates relatively quickly when it’s exposed to open air (ie oxygen and water vapor). Other than that it is pretty amazing as you describe.
Graphene is nearly totally transparent because of how thin it is.
Sheets of graphene can only really be manufactured by growing it on the surface of other materials. So a sheet of it would just look like a film stuck to something else.
Ummm… let me see if I can get you on the same page by laying down some simplified examples first. Keep in mind I’m not a professional anything…
It’s a magnitude stronger than steel as in the same amount of graphene is stronger than the same amount of steel… if you had a toothpick and a similar size steel nail, the nail would be orders of magnitude stronger than the toothpick. Similary, a graphene rod for example of the same size as a steel rod would be orders of magnitude stronger.
A 1×1 meter sheet of graphene assuming 1 single atomic layer thick would be theoretically super strong… in comparison to other things that are 1 atomic layer thick. For reference, pencil lead is made of graphite which is hundreds of thousands of layers of graphene stacked together. So not that strong compared to us, but strong in comparison to other things of its size
so graphene is wild and super thin like you said. it would be strong but not really bulletproof with just a single layer. you could see it but it’d be really faint. touching it might feel weird like touching air or something
It is true that it’s stronger than steel but only when you compare it by weight. It’s easier to explain if you compare the materials in the form of something like a stiff cable. This is realistically how the material would be used because graphene is strongest when you try to pull it apart. For example, say you have a steel cable that weighs 1lb per foot and a graphene cable with the same 1lb per foot weight. The graphene cable will take much more force to break. The main issue is that graphene is very brittle and so far no one has found any way to make anything structural with it because even the smallest defects cause it to be much weaker. If you just have a 1 atom thick sheet then the material would not be very strong as it would just bend under its own weight and break. You should be able to see it but feeling it might be difficult. As for it being bulletproof, I’m not sure. I would guess that with a thick enough sheet it would be bulletproof in the same way ceramic armor plates are and would maybe be lighter.
Yes, you can see it. It absorbs about 2.7% of visible light. If you have it on something very transparent like sapphire or quartz it kinda looks like a part of it would have a very faint layer of dust on it. You can practically only see the edges easily due to the contrast difference.
You could not feel it. It is only one atom thick so nah, nothing you’d feel. Also like others have said, it is strong but still just one atom thick so its strength is so low that there is nothing in day-to-day life that compares to it.
If you have a sheet of graphene on water, it would be torn apart due to surface tension of water and air. That kinda gives an idea how weak a single layer is.
Source: worked with graphene for years.
You would either have to have it as a film on a surface of something else, or any slight perturbations would cause it to fold in on itself. Hexagonal rings like the carbon that graphene is made of are very strongly attracted to each other through Van Der Waals interactions, so the sheet would very much spontaneously “like” to fold upon itself. If it were all crinkled up like a crumpled sheet of paper, it might lose a lot of its notable properties that graphene is known for. Certain arrangements of stacked graphene have been shown to have really nice conductive (electrical flow) properties, but the arrangements of the sheet have to be very specific. With a more or less randomly crumpled sheet, these properties would not take place, and it might actually end up having some resistive or solenoid-like properties due to various currents flowing in different directions. My best guess is it would end up having a lot more properties like graphite than graphene at this point.
If you’re talking about a graphene sheet 1 meter by 1 meter by 1 atom, it’s not stopping a bullet. I’m not sure it’d stop a *sneeze*.
No idea if you’d be able to feel it, but you can (apparently) [see it.](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/jbmtcc/visible_1atom_thick_graphene_1cmx1cmx1atom/)
Without some sort of backing material, a 1-atom thick sheet would probably curl into a roll.
When it won the Nobel prize they famously stated that a 1mx1m defect free monolayer would be enough to support an average cat!
Latest Answers