"Graphene" LED?

Versus From The BBC In The Year 2013...

Graphene is a waste of money, a very senior British professor told me last year during a conversation about government funding for science.

It might be useful to a few applications, he complained, but graphene will never be revolutionary: the technology is too limited - it is interesting but not a game changer.

We were talking a few months after the Chancellor George Osborne had allocated £50m to graphene research.

The year before, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov of Manchester University had won the Nobel Prize for Physics for their pioneering work on the "miracle material" and the funding was a vote of faith in an exciting new area of research. Another £11m followed just after Christmas.

Graphene is the name given to a novel substance composed of a single layer of carbon atoms, extracted from graphite, with astonishing properties: the stuff is stronger than diamond, more conductive than copper and more flexible than rubber.

However amazing, more than £60m is a lot of money to pump into one particular area of science in an age of austerity

However amazing, more than £60m is a lot of money to pump into one particular area of science in an age of austerity and researchers in other subjects are always bound to quibble, at the very least.

In the clamour for funding, resentment is not unusual, particularly if the money appears to be aimed at one specific project rather than a whole field of fundamental research which may deliver far more in the long run.

The objection is to what could be called the Concorde syndrome: public money being hosed at a single project, in that case a supersonic passenger plane, admired for its beauty but limited in its possible uses.
Extraordinary possible range

But graphene is different and has caught the eye of the British government - and other governments and companies - precisely because its potential benefits reach into an extraordinary range of areas.
Could graphene put an end to the problem of rust?

Even if it fails to deliver all that is promised for it in, say, electronics, it might still prove incredibly useful in others such as energy or medicine.

In a paper in Nature last year, Professor Novoselov and his colleagues outlined a "road map" for possible applications of graphene, exploring whether it could become "the next disruptive technology, replacing some of the currently used materials and leading to new markets?"

They acknowledge that many of the material's most exciting characteristics are only achieved with the highest-grade graphene and that industrial-scale techniques for making it have yet to be confirmed.

Still, they argue that a long list of applications is plausible.

Flexible electronic screens may emerge soonest, with the most appealing idea being "e-paper". A working prototype is expected by 2015, according to the Nature study, though the costs are still far too high for any marketable product at the moment.

The authors acknowledge that the established role of silicon will mean that graphene, which is not a semi-conductor, might not play a part in processors till after 2021.
Graphene

Graphene is a form of carbon that exists as a sheet, one atom thick
Atoms are arranged into a two-dimensional honeycomb structure
Discovery of graphene announced in 2004 by the journal Science
About 100 times stronger than steel; conducts electricity better than copper
Touted as possible replacement for silicon in electronics
About 1% of graphene mixed into plastics could make them conductive

The science of materials

How sticky tape trick led to Nobel Prize

However, they say graphene is so thin that a "paint" could act as a rust protector or an "electronic ink" or be added to advanced composite materials to make them impermeable or conductive or stronger.

It could be used to enhance solar cells and to improve the working life of batteries, though a lot of technological barriers still remain.

The price and hassle of switching to graphene need to make sense financially

As a material highly sensitive to the environment, graphene could act as a sensor with a single device measuring strain, gas, magnetism or pressure.

And its purity and large surface area make it suitable for medical uses too: from aiding drug delivery to building new tissue for regenerative medicine. However, the authors admit that the sheer number of hurdles mean this will not happen before 2030.

They recognize that "established benchmark materials will only be replaced if the properties of graphene, however appealing, can be translated into applications that are sufficiently competitive to justify the cost and disruption of changing…"

In other words, the price and hassle of switching to graphene need to make sense financially.

So, the paper argues, graphene's "full potential will only be realized in novel applications, which are designed specifically with this material in mind…"

What this means is that graphene is something of a gamble: to really make sense, people will have to dream up inventions for it.

The bottom line is that graphene is too good to be ignored and - in some applications - may yet prove to be too good to be true.
Thousands of patents

But a look at the statistics for patents - a key indicator of commercial intent - reveals how many countries and companies are prepared to throw the graphene dice.

From a standing start with the Manchester work in 2004, there are now more than 7,000 patents on graphene, with the largest number - more than 2000 - held by China. Samsung alone holds more than 400.

Massive investments on this scale can turn sour - plenty of promising technologies do flop.

But the greater the level of finance, energy and sheer brainpower devoted to graphene globally, the greater are the chances of exploiting it successfully.

The miracle material will soak up a lot of money but, taking a long view, it's unlikely that much will be wasted.

Reading this it appears to me the author of the news report (The reporter) in the original post......Knows little about LED lamps.

NOTE: This does not reflect on the O/P but the reporter..and I am not willing to say more than that.

I wasnt aware that an LED has a filament, and April 1st is still days away

Threw a barrel of snakes out there. Whenever a title to a post contains a (?) then the post is controversial or questionable.

But APPARENTLY this technology MAY have an ability to

Make PV panel glass less fragile

Improve intercell electrical connectivity

But apparently the Brits are going to guard the technology like a mother lion until the Chinese find a way to steal it.

I say, perhaps our jolly neighbors across the vast green refer to junctions as "filaments". Wot?

Yeah I wondered about the filament thing too. Typical reporter lack of knowledge on any technical subject, which makes me doubt any "science" reporting in the general press.

Trust me, the Chinese will find a way to steal the technology. My employer recently cancelled a multi-billion $$$ investment in China, and is now involved in criminal prosecution of a Chinese national ( in the US) for attempted theft of trade secrets (in collaboration with a corporate retiree.) The project cancellation was due to concern that it would be impossible to protect trade secret technology or protect US patents while operating in China.

The Chinese have no ethics, to put it bluntly.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Threw a barrel of snakes out there. Whenever a title to a post contains a (?) then the post is controversial or questionable.

But APPARENTLY this technology MAY have an ability to

Make PV panel glass less fragile

Improve intercell electrical connectivity

But apparently the Brits are going to guard the technology like a mother lion until the Chinese find a way to steal it.

Or buy it,
case in example..CSRV Coates rotary valve heads which can be retrofitted adapted for any internal combustion engine making it way more efficient and less polluting since the engine oil stays in a crankcase,doesn't circulate through the heads,extending oil change intervals many times longer etc etc..
Now this invention has been available for a decade or more now and not a single US auto manufacturer cared to buy and use it!
Now Chinese bought and own all the rights,,

http://www.coatesengine.com/csrv-system.html

coatesengine.com

free radical wrote:

case in example..CSRV Coates rotary valve heads which can be retrofitted adapted for any internal combustion engine making it way more efficient and less polluting since the engine oil stays in a crankcase,doesn't circulate through the heads,extending oil change intervals many times longer etc etc..
Now this invention has been available for a decade or more now and not a single US auto manufacturer cared to buy and use it!
Now Chinese bought and own all the rights,,

http://www.coatesengine.com/csrv-system.html

coatesengine.com

Because adding a bunch of rotating mass makes an engine more efficient. And I've never, ever heard of variable valve timing mechanisms causing excessive wear. Sounds like this device was invented by people only familiar with carburetors.

"Step right up. This here bottle contains oil of coca leaf, genuine mandarin poppy extract, and virgin arsenic*. It is a cure-all for the bilious prone individual, lack of appetite, poor kidney function and inadequate procreation effect"


Laugh-on! The above is a verbatim recounting of a popular tonic sold in the 1870's. To best effect swallow the tincture right after paying a fifty-cent visit to soak for a few hours in a radium mine.

I'll have to get one of these gizmos. Slip it in using the Vornado air intake twister that spins more energy out of a gallon of gasoline. Otter have gallons of saved fuel gushing out the filler pipe in no time...

Some Chinese spent money knowing full well his investment is protected via internet advertising. Want proof? More than a hundred US citizens fell prey to Nigerian princes trusting an angel with forty million dollars worth of the King's treasury gold.

Pin-feathers Quack Waddle