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back to article Boffins brew graphene in kitchen blender

Take pencil leads, detergent, water, stick them in a high-power kitchen blender, and the result? A brew containing the wonder-stuff graphene. Funded by UK chemicals company Thomas Swan, researchers from Trinity College Dublin were working on a way to produce graphene at industrial scale. As noted in Nature, the real work was …

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  1. frank ly

    re. four-or-five layer thick graphene flakes

    Aren't those actually thin flakes of graphite? What is the accepted definition of 'graphene'?

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Bubbles

      Speculation: I wonder if the formation mechanism involves bubbles. Maybe?

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  2. Tom 7

    So not actually making graphene then.

    I thought the definition of graphene was a one atom thin sheet of carbon.

    Not that I would have a problem with several layers joined together. But it would be a lot better it the blender actually joined them up on the edges rather than just blast existing ones out of graphite.

    We need a few trained microbes to go along and stitch these together.

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    1. Francis Boyle Silver badge
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      Re: So not actually making graphene then.

      What I was thinking. I suppose that at four or five layers even a tiny speck is essentially a very thin sheet and has all the nice electrical properties but you're not going to be making a cat's hammock let alone a space elevator with specks.

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    2. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So not actually making graphene then.

      "We need a few trained microbes to go along and stitch these together."

      With falling need for mail sacks, maybe we could get crims to use their needlework skills on the graphene fragments.

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    3. Nigel 11
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      Re: So not actually making graphene then.

      (perfect) Graphite is lots of layers of Graphene held together (mostly) by Van der Waals force between them. Graphene was first discovered by peeling one layer off a Graphite crystal (using sticky tape!). Prior to that, it was believed that a single isolated layer would not be chemically stable. Anyway, I too am puzzled as to what is the actual difference between Graphene in bulk, and ordinary Graphite. The area of the perfect atom-thick layers? I don't know how many imperfections there are in Graphite crystals.

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  3. ADJB

    Dangerous Stuff

    The misses is going to kill me.....

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    1. Evil Auditor Silver badge
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      Joke

      Re: Dangerous Stuff

      You'll be fine once you cash in on the space elevator.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Dangerous Stuff

        ... and then send the missus up it :)

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        1. Wzrd1 Silver badge
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          Re: Dangerous Stuff

          No, send the missus down it. :)

          Or up it without oxygen.

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  4. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

    more kitchen counter than garden shed

    but clever non-standard boffinry nonetheless. Tip o' the hat.

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  5. Dave Pickles

    Condoms?

    According to the BBC News article, "In addition to its potential uses in electronics, graphene might have applications in ... the production of thinner condoms."

    Talk about putting lead in your pencil.

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    1. RobHib
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      Devil

      @ Dave Pickles -- Re: Condoms?

      Graphene and "... the production of thinner condoms"

      Humm. The connotations are horrendous.

      If you've ever had ingrained graphite power on one's hands then you'll know what I mean. (And if you've ever worked with graphite, you'll also know it doesn't take much rubbing to ingrain it.)

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  6. Dan Atkinson
    Stop

    Don't try this at home, folks!

    Just a word of warning to the unwise - if you try this at home without the right quantities, you'll end up with a worktop FULL of grey-coloured bubbles and a knackered blender.

    I asked Argos if this was covered by the extended warranty they try to ram down the throats of customers and they told me it wasn't, even if I broke it in the name of "making possibly world-shattering scientific breakthroughs".

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    1. Wzrd1 Silver badge
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      Re: Don't try this at home, folks!

      "...and 20 to 50 grams of graphite powder (found in pencil leads)”

      Personally, I'll use the graphite in a bottle that is 8 inches tall. Graphite is far, far, far cheaper that way than bonded with clay and then clad with cheap wood.

      As for the rest, true enough. It *would* make one potentially divorce making mess and bollocks the blender.

      Wouldn't stop me from trying with a spare or newly purchased blender.

      It's not like the damned things are expensive!

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Interesting

    Wonder how effective this would be compared to normal ITO, because I have a cunning plan involving sheets of glass and Dupont/etc sourced EL phoshor to make window mounted signs with.

    Its fairly hard to get an even coating with ITO if you don't have just the right expen$ive plasma deposition setup and although tin oxide derived from stannous chloride is conductive getting a decently low resistance isn't.

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Aaand in other news

    You can make DIY graphene using a microwave, the tricky part is filling it with argon with a few ppm of methane first.

    DO NOT try this at home, its a bit dangerous.

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