Twenty years ago, the discovery of a new wonder material—graphene—was announced, and was hailed as one of the breakthrough science stories of the new millennium.
First isolated at the University of Manchester by a team led by Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov, graphene is a one-atom-thick, two-dimensional carbon crystal. It is flexible, transparent and conducts electricity and heat incredibly well, giving this small material huge potential. Some of the different applications for this wonder material will be on show as part of the 2024 Manchester Science Festival, for visitors to find out more about this local discovery which changed the world.
Extreme materials
Manchester remains at the heart of graphene research, and scientists at the National Graphene Institute are working at different methods of producing graphene, including chemical deposition.
As part of our activity zones, you can have a go a building your own giant graphene model, and then discover what the National Graphene Institute’s real-life laboratories are like with hands-on activities.
Graphene jacket
Image: Vollebak
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The Vollebak graphene jacket, acquired by the Science and Industry Museum, will be on display for the first time as part of the Festival.
Developed in collaboration with the National Graphene Institute, the inner layer of this jacket includes graphene. Given that graphene is stronger than steel yet lightweight and flexible, it is a good candidate material for clothing designed to be hard-wearing.
One of the biggest challenges of applying graphene to commercial products is how to produce industrial scale quantities of graphene. Companies like Vollebak collaborate with the National Graphene Institute to apply graphene science to commercial products, such as this jacket.
Sticky tape dispenser
Science Museum Group Collection © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
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Since 1859 scientists had been trying to achieve a single atomic layer using chemical and mechanical methods involving expensive and specialised equipment. However, when a single sheet of graphene was finally isolated at the University of Manchester, it was done using a cheap and familiar piece of equipment—ordinary sticky tape.
Sticky tape was already used to clean samples of graphite ready for experiments and examination by stripping off the top layer to expose the clean graphite beneath. The light bulb moment came when Andre and Kostya’s research group wondered if, when they were throwing away the used pieces of sticky tape with graphite residue on them, they might in fact be throwing away graphene. As the anecdote goes, they fished a used piece of tape back out of the bin, put it under a microscope, and were delighted to see really thin flakes of graphite right there on the tape. Peeling and re-peeling made it possible to get right down to transparent films of graphene. The dispenser used in the famous experiment is currently on display at the museum.
Graphene concrete
Science Museum Group Collection © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
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Production of cement for concrete in the building industry is one of the leading causes of global carbon dioxide emissions. This graphene-enhanced concrete sample was used to test the idea that the addition of only up to 1% of graphene strengthens concrete by around 30% compared to standard concrete, meaning considerably less is needed to build the same structure, reducing carbon footprint.
Discover more
‘Graphene is a million times thinner than paper, but at the same time, 200 times stronger than steel and 100 times more conductive than copper. So all of these properties that we’re used to from our materials, it just completely blows them out of the water’, says Sarah Baines, Curator at the Science and Industry Museum, in episode two of the podcast A Brief History of Stuff.
Listen to the podcast here, and check out our Graphene Objects and Stories for a whole lot more on this wonder material.
