True points:
Graphene and graphene oxide are very expensive experimental raw materials, and with current technology, it is difficult to apply in mass-produced civilian products, let alone consumables. The so-called "graphene" that causes lung symptoms is not graphene in the true sense, and it is more likely to be just activated carbon.
Verifier: Sun Yafei 丨 Doctor of Chemistry, Tsinghua University
In recent decades, graphene has been the darling of materials science. In the past two years, with the spread of the epidemic, some epidemic prevention supplies have begun to claim the use of graphene raw materials, and have reaped a lot of profits in the market.
Interestingly, once the unlimited scenery of graphene but also suffered Waterloo, there are many rumors on the Internet about graphene masks, graphene cotton swabs will lead to lung diseases, and some people sorted out the various crimes of graphene oxide (GO, graphene derivatives), there is a kind of autumn accounting posture. From the content point of view, graphene oxide seems to have been used as a biological weapon.
Online rumors about graphene, graphene oxide seems to have been used as a biological weapon.
These statements, from the perspective of materials science, can be said to be full of loopholes. For example, GO may be activated by the 5G frequency, which is actually nonsense, because graphene oxide is not an organic substance, let alone a molecule with a living function, and it naturally has no biological sense of active or inactive. Even in the list, there are some contradictory statements in itself, such as go will produce a metallic taste in the mouth, but later it will lead to loss of taste and smell. Obviously, this is nothing more than a joke written by some boring people, satirizing the practice of indiscriminately applying the concept of graphene or graphene oxide in various fields, but some people take these strange claims seriously.
In fact, one only needs to think backwards to understand how ridiculous these claims are – if GO is a chemical weapon with so many bizarre effects at the same time, is it necessary for the poisoner to process it into cotton swabs, masks, or even spend a lot of effort to add it to the vaccine? Wouldn't it be simpler to put it directly into the food? Then again, let's talk about how graphene is related to the covid-19 pandemic.
First, what is graphene, and how does it catch fire?
I believe that after so many years of publicity, many people are no strangers to the term graphene, which is essentially a single layer of graphite.
Graphite is a crystal structure formed purely from carbon and is very common in life. For example, pencil refills are mainly composed of graphite and clay, and the more graphite there is, the softer the refill, but the color of the written words will be darker. The main reason why graphite can write is because it is a flaky structure, which is easily misaligned between layers and layers, and when rubbed on paper, it will leave traces.
Each piece of graphite is only as thick as a single-layer atom, because the chemical properties are similar to alkene, and it has the title of graphene. This means that even graphite with a thickness of only one millimeter is composed of up to millions of layers of graphene.
Single-layer graphene is very unstable and easily reunited, so for a long time, no one believed that this substance could actually be obtained.
In 2004, André Heim, a scientist at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, came up with a strange and simple way to put graphite in the middle of two layers of tape, and by tearing the tape to make the graphite thinner and thinner, he actually obtained the graphene material for the first time. For this invention, he won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.
As soon as graphene came out, it attracted the attention of materials scientists because of its excellent properties. For example, it retains the good conductivity of graphite, but because it is only as thick as a single layer of atoms, it is extremely prominent in terms of superconductivity. During his study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cao Yuan, a genius scientist on the mainland, took graphene as the research object, deeply explored the inner principles of superconductivity, and published a number of top journals in succession, shocking the world.
However, pure graphene is more difficult to apply because it does not have an active chemical group. Therefore, the general practice is to treat graphene with concentrated acids to make it graphene oxide, so that it can interact with some other substances.
Despite this, graphene and graphene oxide have not been able to go to civilian products, because their prices are too expensive, and their special properties are usually not needed for civilian products. As for the so-called graphene products on the market, they are basically derived from false propaganda.
How can such a high-precision material be shouted and beaten by everyone because of epidemic prevention?
Two. What is the "graphene" in epidemic prevention supplies?
The cause of the incident was actually because of a warning from Health Canada.
In April 2021, Health Canada said some people had symptoms in their lungs after wearing a mask, as uncomfortable as if they had sucked on cat hair. These masks have a common feature, that is, the packaging of the mask is marked with the word graphene . Studies have found that these "graphene particles" are inhaled by the lungs.
I believe that many people will find two doubts when they see here: why is graphene made into powder and placed in masks? Which mask manufacturer is so rich that it can make masks from graphene?
In fact, these questions are not difficult to answer, as long as you find the original text of the relevant Canadian documents.
In these materials, the following content appears:
Translated, these masks are produced by a company in Shandong, China, and are nominally containing "biomass graphene.". Unexpectedly, the conspiracy theory of "imperialism will not die" has become a product we export to foreign countries, which is somewhat surprising.
This matter obviously does not end here, because we still have to ask, how does a company in Shandong produce graphene masks?
On the company's official website, it is not difficult to find a relevant introduction to biomass graphene, which was originally processed from straw, but the black powder in the product picture seems to be somewhat unusual.
Product images on the company's official website
Continuing to look for the company's patented technology, it is easy to find the production technology of this biomass graphene, but there are also similarities.
Just after carefully looking at the process, it will make people wonder, is this produced graphene, or nanoscale activated carbon? As we all know, activated carbon is also an element of carbon, which is essentially graphite that has not been able to form crystallization, with a porous structure. Compared with graphene, which is very difficult to prepare, the production of activated carbon is not difficult.
Further inquiries can also be found that as early as 2015, this patent was still in doubt. The simple summary is that the team involved in the invention admits that the technology is not mature.
Finally, there is a little doubt, graphene is excellent performance, but these properties are mainly in electromagnetism and mechanics, it is not antibacterial experts, activated carbon with high adsorption is.
Inappropriate naming, immature preparation technology, and antibacterial technology advertised by graphene masks all point to the same conclusion, that is, graphene here is essentially a finer activated carbon. The so-called "graphene mask" was originally an oolong, which is no wonder Health Canada will investigate the above results. Activated carbon masks are not uncommon in China, and long-term wear does have the risk of inhaling particles, so for epidemic prevention needs, the simplest non-woven masks are more appropriate.
In short, graphene and graphene oxide are very expensive experimental raw materials, and with the current technology, it is difficult to apply in mass-produced civilian products, let alone consumables. The so-called "graphene" that causes lung symptoms is not graphene in the true sense, but is more likely to be activated carbon.
This article was edited by zoey
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