It’s been 15 years since two researchers at the University of Manchester discovered a new type of wonder material.
Stronger than steel, yet only one atom thick.
Unbelievably light.
Great for conducting electricity.
It’s the ‘superman’ of the materials world.
I’m talking of course about graphene. You might’ve heard of it? In fact, you probably have.
Because since its discovery in 2004 there’s been no end of hype for graphene. Scientists have found potential uses for it in almost every aspect of life!
But commercially speaking, there’s been crickets. Nothing. Zilch. Nada.
Graphene has hardly made a dent into any of the many industries it was supposedly going to revolutionise.
No ultralight aircraft. No phones that can wrap around your arm. And no graphene ‘smart carriers’ to deliver drugs into your body better.
So why the hold up?
Well, there’s been one problem that has been the bottleneck for progress. But that could be about to change…
Graphene’s Biggest Roadblock
Today, graphene’s real-life uses are confined to mixing it with products like rubbers and plastics.
Graphene acts as an enhancer to existing materials. Adding strength, versatility or conductivity. But so far these products only use tiny amounts of graphene.
That’s because creating graphene in a form that is useable on a larger scale is actually very hard.
Scientist and author of Graphene: The Superstrong, Superthin, and Superversatile Material That Will Revolutionize the World, Joseph Meany, explains:
‘It’s being used to enhance and to change the properties of the other materials. The production problem lies in making very large sheets of graphene, say those that you would be able to pick up and look at with our own eyes.’
He adds importantly:
‘My opinion is that once we can control the graphene production process so that we can make a centimetre square flake of graphene, it might as well be a hundred meters or a thousand meters squared. Once we crack production process we can control the size, there’s going to be no real stopping all of the really out-there application that we can think of for graphene to come along.’
After 25 years of research into graphene’s beneficial effects on anything and everything, it seems that making it in a large enough form for useful production is the final roadblock to overcome.
Once that happens, we could see the most exciting materials revolution since the invention of steel.
And one ASX-listed company is making huge leaps in just that thing…
