Graphene and the Carbon Revolution

To view more programmes in this series visit http://vega.org.uk/video/subseries/27 In October 2010 the Nobel Prize for Physics was won by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at Manchester University for their work on graphene "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene" but if you are left wondering just what graphene is and how it fits in the carbon family then watch this video. Jonathan explains all.

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[JamieBr95]

Not many people my age (16) are interested in this sort of stuff, but I find it fascinating. I wish you could have been a science teacher back when I was in school, it would have made it more interesting. I also have a question..

Do you think that in the future cars and other forms of transport might use graphene as the body or engine parts. Thanks, Jamie.

[VegaScienceTrust]

@JamieBr95 Thanks for the compliments! Probably not for the engine parts

(although graphite is a good lubricant), but mixed into the body

parts, why not? It should make for very light, strong structures.

[gosucoaching]

How well will two surfaces slide one on another if coated with graphene?

[VegaScienceTrust]

@gosucoaching Answer 3 cont/.. But I think

another explanation for the NASA result is that the sheet edges are

terminated with volatile organic species, and you could lose these in

high vacuum, particularly under irradiation - and unterminated sheet

edges can bind into the sheet below which would destroy any sliding

behaviour.

The small molecule argument would presumably involve a change in the

lattice spacing, which isn't seen in TEM (but I suppose that's high

vacuum!)

[VegaScienceTrust]

@gosucoaching Answer 4) Google >graphite not a lubricant in vacuum

So I would guess that in air at normal tem and pressure the two sheets will slide as in graphite as that is what 2 sheets are very thin 2 sheet graphite.

[VegaScienceTrust]

@gosucoaching Hello! Thank you for your very interesting question! It caused quite a debate amongst our international community of carbon scientists! Basically there is no conclusive answer from the research scientists to your question yet! The jury is still out!

[gosucoaching]

@VegaScienceTrust Glad to see such an extended response. It seems world isn't so perfect as I thought when asking the question.

Two main theoretical problems in my opinion - griping to surface and terminating the edges. Third would be to perfect world. :)

[VegaScienceTrust]

@gosucoaching Answer 3) We've calculated the 'sliding energy' for graphite and the enery difference between different stackings is not very large, particularly if you slide in a good direction. It's true that the 'nesting energy' can be small per small unit area and still add up to a large amount when you have large surface areas in contact.

[VegaScienceTrust]

@gosucoaching Answer 2 cont... if two surfaces were each coated in a perfect graphite sheet they might slide ok till they found the lowest energy position and then stay there till you overcome the 'nesting' energy (for want of a better word: the atoms of the top sheet lying within the hollow created by three atoms below etc.) ...

[VegaScienceTrust]

@gosucoaching Answer 2) well .... I remember hearing someone say that the NASA guys tried to use graphite as a lubricant in space and it failed. Apparently the classic sliding of graphite sheets is due to material (atoms and small mols) trapped between the sheets. The opinion was that 'pure' graphite was not a good lubricant ...