Graphene breakthrough slashes cost of large-scale production while boosting performance

摘要

Since it was first isolated from graphite in 2004, graphene has been hailed as a wonder material. Graphene is just a single atom thick but it is flexible, stronger than steel, and capable of efficiently conducting heat and electricity. However, widespread industrial adoption of graphene has so far been limited by the expense of producing it. Affordable graphene production could lead to a wide range of new technologies reaching the market, including synthetic skin capable of providing sensory feedback to people with limb pros-theses. That may be set to change now that researchers at the University of Glasgow have found a way to produce large sheets of graphene, using the same cheap type of copper used to manufacture lithium-ion batteries found in many household devices.