RE: Graphine24 Nov 2018 14:11
How carbon copycats risk denting faith in graphene - Times, 24nov18 The advantage of graphene is that it is a near-miraculous form of carbon that is super-strong, super-conductive and set to revolutionise the world. The disadvantage is that without highly specialist equipment it’s impossible to distinguish graphene from a less miraculous form of carbon: the kind you put in a pencil. Researchers have called for a system of validation after a study into 60 commercial suppliers found that “pretty much nobody is producing graphene in the world right now”. Instead, they were simply providing crushed graphite. “What’s clear is it’s all graphite,” Antonio Castro Neto, of the National University of Singapore, said. His study, in the journal Advanced Materials, could not establish whether this was deliberate deception but what he could be sure of was that people were making a lot of money from a non-existent product. “1kg of graphite costs $1. People claiming to sell 1g of graphene can get $100.” Graphene, discovered in Britain in 2004, is a lattice of carbon an atom thick, a structure that could revolutionise industries such as materials science and electronics. Most work is at the research stage, with academic institutions making their own supply. “People always ask me why graphene is not yet in applications,” Professor Castro Neto said. “There are no applications for graphene in the market because there is no graphene in the market.” Alexander Tzalenchuk, of the National Physical Laboratory in west London, works with the Graphene Flagship, a €1 billion EU research initiative based in Cambridge whose members can send him samples for verification. He and his colleagues ultimately want to set up a system to provide an industry standard. Otherwise, he said, the revolution will stall before it has begun. “Manufacturers of devices are very interested in using this fabulous material which will solve all their problems,” he said. “But if they go to suppliers and try to incorporate graphene into their products, and it doesn’t give the advertised performance, people start to say, ‘Oh, well this is snake oil’.”
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