Cheap Graphene Reported From Laser Fired At Plastic

Scientists have come up with a cheap and easy way to make electronics and energy storage components out of the supermaterial graphene.

Researchers can now make the amazingly strong material that is an excellent heat and electricity conductor by firing a laser at cheap plastic sheets. The laser burns patterns into the polyimide polymer, which create microscopic interconnected flakes of the single-atom-thick sheets of bound carbon atoms.

One of the chemists behind the material says the laser actually creates a hard foam of graphene flakes that remain connected to the plastic from which they are burned. The process can be done at room temperature and pressure, another important manufacturing advance.

“This will be good for items people can relate to: clothing and wearable electronics like smartwatches that configure to your smartphone,” says Rice University chemistry professor James Tour, who took part in the research. “It’s conductive enough for many applications.”

Tour said the material can be used to connect different components in electronics, or as the energy storage medium of new supercapacitors, which can quickly store and discharge electricity.

A paper on their work was published Dec. 10 in the journal Nature Communications.

Gif of Laser-Induced Graphene created from Youtube video.