Lead
A new type of material, "graphene", was discovered, which is up to 200 times stronger, stronger than steel, and 1,000 times more thermally conductive than copper.
Therefore, graphene soon gained the love of many scientific researchers and the support of funds.
However, decades have passed since the birth of graphene, but it has not appeared in our lives.
Until recently, the advent of graphene gave people hope.
Since the discovery of a material called "carbon nanotubes" in the 60s of the last century, this material, like graphene, has been called a "supermaterial", and they have excellent properties and can be used to replace many materials.
However, there are some gaps between the two materials.
So, what is the relationship between graphene and carbon nanotubes?
In this "breakout battle", who is still most likely to break the graphene game?
The birth of carbon nanotubes.
In the 60s of the 20th century, a scientist named "George Strong" used an electron microscope to observe a cut graphite tube while conducting graphite research, but found that there were layers of carbon atoms around the graphite tube.
George Strong recorded this discovery and gave it the name "carbon nanotubes".
In 1965, Professor Fumio Mizushima of Osaka University in Japan told his students about the research of carbon nanotubes, and then a student "Matsuura Taiyo" said that he wanted to give these carbon atoms and molecules a nickname, so he named this nickname "ene".
Graphene is a deformation of graphite, which is a single layer of carbon atoms of graphite, and graphite is only stacked from graphene.
Subsequently, Professor "George Strong" of the Berkeley Laboratory in the United States conducted in-depth research on the properties of carbon nanotubes and graphite formed by the stacking of carbon atoms in a single layer, and successfully stripped graphene from graphite in the 80s.
Because of the excellent properties of these carbon nanotubes and the graphene carbon atoms stripped from graphite, they are called "super materials" by many researchers.
In 2004, André Geim, along with Professor Costo's Old Novos, stripped graphite and prepared graphene films for the first time, and found that graphene has much higher thermal conductivity than copper.
This led to the two winning the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Graphene has the power to change the world.
Since the discovery of graphene, it has been thought to be a material that can change the world.
Although the inventor of graphene has never stopped researching graphene, coupled with the Nobel Prize and many international awards, graphene research funds are pouring in wave after wave, it can be said that graphene is about to set off a "breakthrough war".
After the discovery of graphene, it quickly gained global recognition as a material that could change the world.
Because graphene is extremely tough, it can be used to make body armor, explosion-proof windows, hit warheads, and the shells of large spacecraft.
Graphene also has high electrical and thermal conductivity, so it can also be easily applied to electronic products, can be used to make mobile phones, computers, tablet screens, and also has strong mechanical properties.
Graphene can be used not only to make electronic products, but also to make steel, concrete, brick walls, the global steel production is about 1.4 billion tons, so if you can really use graphene to make steel, you can directly save 1.4 billion tons of raw materials in the world, and it is more durable.
Similarly, the world's production of plastic is very large, it is a very lightweight material, which can be used to make all kinds of containers and packaging boxes.
If graphene is used instead of plastic, it will reduce the pollution of plastic waste on the earth to a certain extent.
Graphene's breakout battle.
The emergence of graphene has undoubtedly brought great changes to our lives, but after the popularity of graphene, many researchers have also discovered some shortcomings of graphene.
In practical applications, graphene is usually applied in the form of graphene nanofilms, but this nanofilm is very difficult to manufacture and requires a lot of money and manpower.
Therefore, many researchers began to look for an alternative, which is the opening of graphene's "breakthrough war".
In this "breakout battle", there are two materials that cannot be ignored, one is the carbon nanotubes that were first discovered, and the other is the "carbon platform" that not many people paid attention to when they were discovered.
It can be said that the relationship between these three materials is the "three-country relationship" of graphene's "breakthrough war".
Since the discovery of carbon nanotubes in the 60s, carbon nanotubes have followed the trajectory of graphene, and at the same time have the advantage that graphene does not have, that is, nanotubes are easier to prepare.
In 1991, a professor at Ikuei University in Japan prepared multi-walled carbon nanotubes for the first time, which is a carbon nanotube material that can dock carbon nanotubes together to form a tubular material, so that multi-walled can be better applied to some materials.
Carbon nanotubes are formed by curling the six-membered ring of carbon atoms, so there are two types of carbon nanotubes, one is a single-walled carbon nanotube, which is composed of a carbon atom, and the other is a multi-walled carbon atom tube.
It can be said that the birth of carbon atom tube is the biggest opponent since the birth of graphene.
The strength of multi-walled carbon nanotubes is similar to that of carbon nanotubes, but it is more resilient than carbon nanotubes, so it is loved by many scientific researchers, and has also obtained a large number of research funds for the research of multi-walled carbon nanotubes.
It can be said that the relationship between carbon nanotubes and multi-walled carbon nanotubes and graphene is like one overshadowing the other.
Known as the "post-carbon material", it was only discovered by researchers in 2015 that a material "G Tene", which is a thin film of carbon atoms similar to graphene, but has benefits that graphene does not have.
G Tene is easier to prepare than graphene, so after the discovery of G Tene, it quickly attracted the attention of researchers and was pinned on high hopes.
So, can G Tene break the graphene game?
epilogue
Although G Tene material has advantages that graphene does not have, H Tene also has the disadvantage that it cannot completely replace graphene.
Therefore, in this "breakout battle", who will be the final opponent of graphene will need time to demonstrate.
However, it is gratifying that in terms of graphene research in mainland China, that is, a university in Zhangye is also a local dozens of local enterprises, as well as the municipal government, jointly provide financial support to carry out research on graphene.
It can be said that Continental has been at the forefront of the world in graphene research.