Graphene may have found its killer app

[ur-whale]

https://archive.ph/41Y4p

[woleium]

"The 5bn tonnes of cement produced each year thus account for some 8% of the world’s anthropogenic CO2, and generate abnormally high emissions per dollar of revenue earned compared even with other polluting industries (see chart). Yet if less than 0.1% by weight of graphene is added to the mixture, concrete ends up 30% stronger. And stronger concrete means less of it is needed, with a consequent reduction in CO2. "

[samus]

Hoping for the best, but hopefully this doesn't turn out to be such a hassle like asbestos :)

[anakaine]

It's would be golden if we could remove a great deal of the CO2 produced regardless of whether graphene was present in the mix. Or, hear me out, devise a concrete that reacted with atmospheric co2 to produce something more benign. That way it changes from an emitter to being a passive remover.

[barbegal]

30% stronger doesn't mean 30% less usage though so it would be interesting to see how much less concrete can actually be used in typical applications.

[BLanen]

Economists have never heard of Yevon's paradox. Surprising.

Increased efficiency will lead to more use, not less.

[baxtr]

Interestingly this is also trending right now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31440518

[t_mann]

Stronger concrete sounds much more interesting than just that less concrete means less CO2. Should open up some design possibilities for architects.

[IshKebab]

I'm guessing it's stronger in tension, which is not super useful for concrete which is only used in compression.

[jl6]

Or we build skyscrapers 30% higher.

[gruuya]

Graphene's cousin, carbon nanotubes, have been touted as a concrete-strengthening additive for some time now[1], but the downside seems to be that corrosion sensitivity is increased.[2] Curious to see whether graphene would really be immune to that as is claimed.

"And when, eventually, these things do reach the ends of their lives, if the graphene can be recovered and used again it would be a welcome boost to building a circular economy."

This just sounds silly/unfeasible.

[1] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmats.2022.8616... [2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-42761-2

[michelb]

Graphene's killer app seems to be press releases :)

[causality0]

I swear these stories are like clockwork. Hey it's been six months, let's crank out another story about how graphene has finally made it as if we haven't heard that before. Put it on the garbage pile with the incredible battery breakthrough and the hey guys did you know Bitcoin went up/down again? articles.

[sandworm101]

I especially enjoy how this ties one of the most expensive products by weight (graphene) to one of the least (concrete). There is no greater tease for investors than suggesting that your knew tech might one day be an ingredient in concrete or steel.

[boringg]

Sells magazines - they have a recipe they follow. While it isn't all rote there is a cadence to it.

[solarpunk]

If we don't take this[1] sort of stuff seriously, graphene's gonna be the next asbestos.

[1]https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/graphene-slips-deeper-in...

[Andrew_nenakhov]

Cement... Where is my space elevator?! When I first heard about graphene ~20 years ago, I was promised a space elevator, and I'm still waiting.

[jillesvangurp]

I know it's popular to be a millennial on HN and demand instant gratification of our short attention spans. But 20 years really is nothing for developments like this.

The article actually mentions a company called Levidian. Apparently, they produce thousands of tonnes of graphene per year already. I'm sure they are not the only one. Somebody is buying that stuff and using it for something. A core usecase for this company seems to be carbon capture. The founders of this company were involved with the ground breaking research that lead to discovering how to produce graphene.

Also, that's less than 20 years ago. They were messing around with sticky tape and graphite in 2004. The people that did that got their Nobel price in 2010. From there to thousands of tonnes produced per year in the space of 18 years is actually kind of impressive.

[prox]

Ever since I watched Foundation, I am kinda not very keen on the idea.

[DeathArrow]

Fire a tweet and mention @ElonMusk in it. :)

[simonebrunozzi]

Serious question, and I hope someone could help me: I am going through a restoration work next year (2023) which involves concrete and a very delicate environment (city of Venezia, Italy), and would love to try to use graphene to strengthen the concrete. Quantities are not huge, so cost would not be a big issue for this particular project.

What would be the best way to experiment with it, other than contacting Levidian Nanosystems and/or Dr. Tour and ask them?

[angarg12]

My father worked for the last few years in a company specialized in graphene technology and products. It's wrong for me to say this but I ended up not thinking much of it. The company pivoted many times trying to find a successful product. Their strategy seems to be "throw graphene at anything and hope for the best". As it worst it has used very dubious claims and armies of sales people to peddle their products.

[hericium]

> Their strategy seems to be "throw graphene at anything and hope for the best".

This is basically science, backed by some know-how of what possibly may happen.

[peter_retief]

It is difficult to work with graphene, for many reasons.

[gwill]

Such a shame graphene didn't blow up like it was hyped to. I remember hearing it was going to be the new laser. That's probably too extreme, but i wonder if it's just a material that we discovered "too soon" and quickly it will have tons of applications.

[jansan]

I hope they will not find any nasty properties like they did with asbestos. Is it known what happens if you cut graphene and the dust gets into your lungs?

[labster]

We’ve already run that experiment on millions of schoolchildren. It turns out pencils are safe. And even safer without the wood around them — those are stabby bits. The graphene layers that make up graphite seem to be pretty harmless.

[a_r41]

Clicked thinking this was about GrapheneOS. I'm stupid.

[mise_en_place]

Why not invest more time and energy into renewing old plastics? We already have an ideal material, it just needs to have a longer lifespan of use. I have no doubt graphene will be the material of the future, like plastics were when they first came out. But we have more pressing concerns.

[hans1729]

> plastics [...] ideal material

microplastics polluting every organ of every organism on the planet would like a word with you

[eurasiantiger]

Josephson Junction superconducting semiconductors are going to be graphene’s killer app.

[hgomersall]

I'm keen to know how it might be used with other concrete innovations like https://carbicrete.com/.

[News-Dog]

FYI: Graphene : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene

[teekert]

“ It will help decarbonise industry” … Ironic.

[DeathArrow]

I think one of the potential most important applications of graphene is in the semiconductor industry.

[amelius]

How safe is this?

Will this add a graphene-flake problem to a microplastics problem?

[Digit-Al]

This is mentioned in the article as a concern that is being studied; you may have missed it.