There seems to be little that graphene can’t do. While previous studies have shown that it can repair itself, with a little assistance from heat or pressure, new research suggests that it can actually fix holes in its structure entirely unaided. More »
Slowly, but surely graphene is pushing our technological hopes, dreams and, yes, nightmares towards reality. The stuff is capable of extending battery life, generating electricity, powering high-speed data connections and super computer-worthy CPUs. It’s water proof, stretchy, bendy and apparently self healing. (This space reserved for T-1000 reference.) Researchers at the University of Manchester discovered that, if you put a hole in a sheet of graphene, it simply stitches itself back together. This is thanks to carbon’s tendency to latch on to other atoms, including its own, which can make the futuristic material difficult to work with, but gives it this highly unique quality. Thankfully, we’re no where near self-healing robots. But, the discovery could lead to a simple method for molding it into almost any shape. Once pierced, the form of the mend is determined by the type of molecules introduced — pure carbon simply regrows the perfect honeycomb structure, while a few foreign atoms can lead to “defects.” Of course, if they’re intentional and predictable, defects merely become “features.” For more check out the source link.
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Graphene heals itself, powers our dreams and nightmares originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 22:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Over a century ago, Thomas Edison developed a rechargeable nickel-iron battery, designed to power cars. Remarkably, the technology is still used by some people to store energy from solar panels and wind turbines—but now, Stanford engineers have tweaked it to charge 1000 times faster. More »
All signs point towards graphene being the supermaterial that pushes humanity into the future we’ve been dreaming of. From impossibly fast transistors to curing foot odor, there’s seemingly no limit to Graphene’s potential. More »
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