Orange Persimmon Interactive Reporter Weng Danni and Jin Jingxin
The movie "Avatar" depicts a fictional planet - Pandora, where a powerful human fleet has traveled several light years to destroy the ecology of this place in order to obtain a special resource on this planet - the element of Unobtainium.
Unobtainium translates into Chinese as "rare element". In aviation, people use the term "rare element" to describe a perfectly performing material, such as being as light as air but as hard as steel.
And today, a completely new material is approaching the "rare element" of human dreams, which is graphene. This "superpower" from the graphite family, with its monoatomic layer thickness and honeycomb hexagonal structure, lightly broke the record of "nature's thinnest material". It also has subversive mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties, and can even withstand bending and stretching, which can be said to be the "hexagonal warrior" in the material world.
Despite its superior performance, graphene is still very "young", having been isolated for the first time in 2004, and it has only been 20 years since then. Maybe you've seen a lot of news about graphene on the Internet, "Graphene down jackets are warmer?", "Graphene batteries can greatly shorten charging time?", "Graphene materials can be used in mobile phone manufacturing?", ......
But how much do you really know about graphene? Is graphene really that amazing? How do humans make this material?
This morning, the first phase of the 2024 "Into the New Quality Productivity" series of popular science activities of the Zhejiang Association for Science and Technology took the public into the national specialized and special new "little giant" enterprise - Gaoene Technology, as well as the Hangzhou International Graphene Expo, to deeply reveal the charm of this "king of new materials".
Tape torn out of the Nobel Prize
At the beginning of the activity, the science docents walked along the exhibition hall to popularize science about the "family" and origin of graphene. For example, fullerene, the "big brother" of graphene, as the earliest discovered carbon nanomaterial, the discovery of fullerene has greatly increased the number of known carbon allotropes, which were previously limited to graphite, diamond and amorphous carbon, such as soot and charcoal.
And how did graphene come to be discovered? You probably won't believe it, it's torn out of duct tape? Yes, it's just plain scotch tape. Two British physicists, Andrei Heim and Konstantin Novoselov, separated the layered structure of graphite on discarded tape thrown away in the laboratory and obtained the first two-dimensional material of mankind: graphene. This discovery also earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010.
The narrator told you that graphene, like our common graphite rods and pencil leads, is composed of carbon atoms, but it is only composed of a layer of carbon atoms on a flat surface, which can be said to be characterized by thinness, so thin that it can no longer be thin. At the same time, graphene is also a master of heat conduction, 10 times stronger than the most heat-conducting metallic silver.
To use a vivid analogy, graphene is currently the most mechanically powerful material known to mankind, 100 times stronger than steel. And this strength is like pulling apart a graphene film that is only the thickness of plastic wrap, and an elephant is standing on a pencil, and the sharp corners of the pencil lead can't pierce it.
If graphite is a book, then graphene is one of the pages. After explaining the basic knowledge of graphene, the children were divided into several groups and worked together to spell out the structure of graphene-honeycomb hexagonal structure with the molecular structure model of the ball and stick. Finally, the graphene structure is put together to complete the structural model of graphite. This hands-on process gives children a deeper understanding of the structure of graphene.
In the exhibition hall, there are also many graphene-related interactive experiments, such as different cotton, linen, wool, silk and graphene yarns, flocs, down and other fibers and fabrics displayed on the table, so that children can intuitively feel and touch. There is also the experience of graphene heating film and heat dissipation film, which allows children to truly feel the magic of this new material and transform abstract knowledge into intuitive experience.
The narrator told everyone that graphene has very rich application scenarios, such as the ability of graphene aerogel to adsorb offshore crude oil, graphene-based carbon fiber and heat dissipation film can be used in the aerospace field, and graphene composite fiber can greatly optimize people's daily life...... "We use graphene batteries to fully charge mobile phones, and it only takes a few seconds to fully charge." In the amazement, the children were full of curiosity and longing for the prospect of graphene, a new material and technological innovation.
【Popular Science Class】
石墨烯(Graphen)
Graphene is a two-dimensional nanomaterial composed of carbon atoms with a six-membered ring structure and periodic arrangement, which is currently the thinnest in the world, but also the material with the highest strength, with excellent optical, electrical, thermal and mechanical properties, and has a wide range of application prospects in aerospace, battery power, fiber textiles, energy conversion, optoelectronic devices and other fields, and is an important strategic frontier material in the 21st century, known as the "king of new materials".
Graphene: a veritable "hexagonal warrior"
- The hardest substance in nature to date
Graphene is up to 200 times stronger than steel and even 10 times stronger than diamond. This amazing mechanical property provides a new solution for high-intensity demand areas such as aerospace and building structures.
Super electrical and thermal conductivity
Graphene's electrical properties are like "current highways", conducting electricity 100 times faster than copper, meaning that current flows almost without resistance on its surface, which provides an ideal building block for high-speed electronics and high-efficiency energy conversion devices such as solar cells. At the same time, the thermal conductivity of graphene far exceeds that of silver, and the thermal conductivity is excellent, making it shine in the application of heat dissipation materials and thermal management systems.
Ultra-thin and ultra-transparent
Graphene is very thin, with only one layer of carbon atoms, and it is 97% transparent. This gives graphene a particular advantage in the manufacture of transparent materials and electronic devices.
Excellent adsorption and filtration capacity
The unique two-dimensional structure of graphene gives it a large specific surface area and a high degree of porosity, which can effectively adsorb and filter pollutants, and is expected to solve many environmental problems in water treatment, air purification and other fields.
["Into the New Quality Productivity" series of popular science activities]
With the rapid development of science and technology, new quality productivity is reshaping our world at an unprecedented rate. Zhejiang Association for Science and Technology actively responds to the call of the times and strives to create a series of popular science activities of "entering new quality productivity", aiming to deepen the popular science education of young people, relying on the unique "315" scientific and technological innovation system of Zhejiang Province and the forward-looking "9+6" future industrial layout, leading the public to enter the frontier of science and technology, perceive the charm of science and technology, improve the scientific quality of the whole people, and draw a blueprint for innovation and development.
The 2024 Zhejiang Association for Science and Technology "Entering the New Quality Productivity" series of popular science activities will build a bridge between the public and cutting-edge science and technology in a rich and diverse scene-based, experiential and immersive form of popular science, aiming to stimulate scientific interest, cultivate the spirit of innovation, and lay a solid public foundation and social consensus for the creation of a scientific and technological innovation atmosphere, scientific and technological talent reserve and the development of high-tech industries in Zhejiang Province and even the whole country.
The first phase of the event led the public into the Hangzhou International Graphene Expo to unveil the mystery of the "King of New Materials". Subsequently, a series of exciting science tours will be launched one after another, taking you to visit Tsinghua University's Changsan Hospital, Xianghu Laboratory and other scientific research centers, and jointly explore the innovation context of five future industries, including synthetic biology, gene editing, brain science and artificial intelligence, hydrogen energy storage, aerospace information, ground-air integration, metaverse, and deep earth and deep sea.