What is graphene and why is it becoming a buzzword recently (mostly in the world of investments but not only)?
In: Technology
Graphene is material composed of carbon atoms layed in a sheet of hexagonal forms. It was first observed in 1962 but wasn’t really known back then. In 2004 it was rediscovered and isolated and since then a lot of companies were trying to develop capabilities to synthesise it in a profitable manner.
Its overall a very light, very stable, very strong material, with high thermal and eletric condutivity.
It has a potential to be utilized in many aplications that require a material like this, from space ship fuselage to artificial organ fabrication to eletric wind mill blades.
The company that manages to develop a way to mass produce it, stands to win billions
*Graphene* is a particular form of *carbon,* the same substance that’s in your pencil, your mom’s diamond ring, and that’s central to the chemical reactions keeping you alive.
Specifically, graphene is a flat, single-atom sheet of carbon atoms, linked together to make hexagons. This arrangement lends graphene very interesting properties as regards electrical and thermal conduction, or the ability of graphene to move thermal energy and electrical charge from one point to another.
These and other properties make graphene very interesting for applications such as solar cells, touchscreens, materials engineering, and so on and so forth.
Graphene is an ultra thin (just one layer of atoms) material made from carbon. It’s very very durable for it’s weight so it’s a potential candidate for many future technologies (space elevator and the likes). It also has some pretty unique electrical properties.
I don’t know why it’s buzzing right now. In the world of science and technology it was a buzzword back in 2004 when it was discovered or in 2010 when it won a nobel prize.
Everyone else has answered what graphene is fairly well.
Whilst it is potentially a revolutionary material were only now beginning to get into the process of scaling up production for more commercial uses. As we produce more of it and find ways to do it easier and cheaper the potential for graphene will explode as comoanies begin to develop new products using it. As such exoect to see companies looking for funding for items using it and in a few years potential IPOs from the more successful firms
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