The intention of this blog is only to share the collections. Inadvertently if any file is under copyright, please intimate me so that it can be removed forthwith.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Have You Heard About Graphene?



Technology helps the world advance. As humans it's in our nature to investigate, innovate and solve problems. This curiosity means we make things, create things and develop new technologies. You can look back thousands of years for basic examples of technology pushing civilization forward. Most people don't understand the rapid change technology has on their life...or the speed at which change occurs. ////

For example, the following are the five 'Great Ages' of human progress and their approximate duration:
Stone Age — 3.4 million years.
Bronze Age — 2,500 years.
Iron Age — 500 years.
Industrial Revolution — 80 years.
Information Revolution — 20 years.
You'll notice the length of each 'age' diminishes as technology improves. 

The computer industry calls this trend 'Moore's Law'. It dictates that computer processing power doubles every 18 months. 200 times stronger than steel...150,000 times thinner than a human hair...more flexible than a sheet of paper.

You may have heard about Graphene. If you haven't, it's a newly discovered, very special refined form of graphite. 
It's a one-atom-thick sheet of densely packed carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice. Put simply, it's a sheet of carbon atoms 150,000 times thinner than a human hair. Under a powerful microscope, it looks like chicken wire.

But what's so special about it? For starters, it's 200 times stronger than structural steel... It's extremely lightweight too... Soon, everything from bicycles and boats to aeroplanes and cars could be made out of graphene composites.

And when they are, their energy efficiency and durability could skyrocket. But that's just the beginning of what this new 'smart material' can do...Not only is it the strongest material researchers have ever tested — it's also one of the best conductors man has ever found. IBM has already created a graphene-based processor capable of executing 100 billion cycles per second. Researchers believe that in the future, a graphene credit card could store as much information as today's computers.

This one material alone could prove more revolutionary than — and soon REPLACE — plastic, Kevlar and the silicon chip. In fact, it's such a breakthrough that the first two scientists to successfully produce single-atom-thick crystals of graphene were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics. And for good reason...In just two years, over 200 companies from a wide array of industries have researched the magical potential of graphene...
Scientists in the US and China are already using tiny graphene-based probes to target and identify tumours in live mice. They hope similar graphene-based particles could shuttle cancer drugs to tumours...or even kill tumour cells directly! Engineers at Northwest University, Seattle, found that specially crafted graphene electrodes could allow a lithium-ion battery — like those found in your smartphone or Toyota Prius — to charge 10 times faster and hold 10 times more power. And in 2011, chemists at Rice University, Houston, created graphene-based thin films — unlocking the secret to incredibly flexible, super-durable touch screens and solar cells that can wrap around just about anything...Samsung have already said its flexible displays should enter full-scale production later this year — and it expects to have a dozen more graphene-based products on the market within the next five.

IBM, Nokia and Apple are hot on their heels too. Touch screens...processor chips...casings...and batteries in everything from PCs and HD TVs to tablets, mobile phones and hybrids could be all made with graphene.
Smart phones so skinny and flexible you can roll them up and put them behind your ear...and so durable you can beat them with a hammer! Imagine how our world — and your life — would change if the batteries that run your iPhone...your Kindle...and your laptop held 10 TIMES more power and charged 10 TIMES faster than they do now...

This is just a taste of the cutting-edge innovations coming in of the Molecular Age......innovations that will reshape the future in the months and years ahead...and it's starting now. You're looking at a simultaneous eruption of
new-age technologies that will alter our lives on a scale not seen for 100 years.

Source: Popular science articles. For more info everyone knows what is to be done....

No comments: