Advanced technology from the movies is getting closer to reality. Graphene is being touted as a material that could revolutionize wearable devices and next-generation semiconductor technology due to its strength, flexibility, and conductivity. With graphene, the future of smart technology and ubiquity is one step closer.
Have you ever seen the movie “Mission Impossible” or “Minority Report?” In the movie, the protagonist wears various wearable devices and has a computer screen in front of his eyes to solve various missions. It seems like a far cry from the way we stare at tiny cell phone screens and lug heavy laptops around to write reports every day. But would you believe it if these advanced devices were actually being developed and made available to the masses? Wearable devices are already here, with many people using smart watches and smart glasses, and blood glucose monitoring devices being used in hospitals. These technological advancements aren’t just adding convenience, they’re fundamentally changing the way we live. From personal health management to industry, wearable devices are becoming an increasingly essential technology.
There’s one material that’s taking the ubiquity of wearable devices to the next level. It’s graphene. Graphene is a single layer of graphite that is made up of carbon atoms covalently bonded together in hexagonal layers. Many scientists have tried and failed to obtain graphene, but surprisingly, this revolutionary material was discovered in a very simple way. In 2004, Andre Geim and Konstantin Sergeevich Novoselov from the UK were the first to isolate graphene from graphite. The tool they used to isolate graphene was scotch tape. When they accidentally stuck the tape to graphite and peeled it off, they found that only a single layer of carbon remained on the tape. This discovery earned the team the Nobel Prize in Physics, and took the scientific community a step forward.
There are several reasons why graphene has been able to make the leap to the next generation of materials. First, graphene is extremely strong. Because the carbon is so densely connected in a net-like structure, it’s extremely strong, up to 200 times stronger than steel, which is usually thought of as very strong. Graphene is also extremely flexible. The extra space inside a single plate of carbon allows it to stretch, so it can change its structure and still retain its properties. Finally, graphene is a very good conductor of heat and electricity. Graphene has the same band structure as semiconductors, with a small energy gap between the valence band, which is filled with electrons, and the conduction band, which is empty of electrons, allowing electrons to easily move to the conduction band. These properties make graphene excellent at conducting electricity and heat, which is one of the reasons it’s being touted as a key material for next-generation electronics. In particular, graphene is twice as thermally conductive as diamond, the best known thermal conductor, and graphene has a resistivity value that is more than 35% lower than copper, which is currently used in wires, making it a very good conductor. These properties have attracted much attention as the next generation of materials to replace traditional silicon semiconductors.
With so many excellent properties, the applications for graphene are endless. It’s used to make bendable liquid crystal screens because it’s so stretchable that it can maintain its thermal and electrical conductivity even when bent. The wearable devices and scroll computers we mentioned at the beginning could also be made with graphene. In particular, it’s garnering a lot of attention as a possible replacement for indium tin oxide (ITO), which is currently used to make displays, because it has the disadvantages of low reserves and poor permeability. It is also a very good conductor of electricity, which can greatly improve the performance of electrodes such as solar cells and fuel cells, and can be used as a next-generation semiconductor such as ultra-fast transistors. For these reasons, graphene has the potential to revolutionize a wide range of industries as a next-generation material. For example, new batteries made from graphene could charge faster and last longer than traditional lithium-ion batteries due to their higher energy density. These batteries could make a significant contribution to advances in electric vehicles, smartphones, drones, and other technologies. In addition, graphene-based transparent electrodes are transparent yet electrically conductive, which could be essential for future transparent displays or smart window technologies.
With all of these properties, graphene is emerging as a leading player in the ubiquitous era of connecting everything in the home. Thin, flexible electronic tags utilizing graphene can connect the things we own, such as appliances, cars, and even clothes, to each other and make them work as one integrated system. Such a system could enable the smart home of the future we envision. For example, a wardrobe tagged with graphene could recommend what to wear today based on weather information, a refrigerator could automatically determine the expiration date of the food inside through graphene sensors and order the necessary ingredients, and a graphene-based smartwatch or health monitoring device could check your health in real time and automatically send data to your doctor.
Let’s go back to the beginning again. In the morning, a screen in front of your eyes automatically tells you the weather and your to-do list for the day, and a robot prepares your breakfast for you. You eat your breakfast, put on your smartwatch, which is connected to your computer, and head to work. When you get home at the end of the day, you’re greeted by appliances equipped with graphene sensors that automatically optimize the environment in your home. And when it’s time to go to bed, your screen will remind you of tomorrow’s tasks and automatically provide optimal sleep conditions. All of this may not just be in the distant future. With innovative materials and technologies like graphene, we could be on the verge of making this future a reality.
