After 16 years of hype, graphene finally delivers on its promise – with a cosmetic face mask

Maybe it's not what former UK chancellor George Osborne expected when, in 2011, he confirmed £50m in government funding to take the discovery of graphene from the "British laboratory to the British factory floor", but the much-hyped super-material is making its way to market as a cosmetic face mask. Brit advanced materials …

[Anonymous Custard]

Super tache?

Well if any material could hide Superman's moustache, it would be Graphene...

(other than Silicon of course, via CGI)

[Anonymous Coward]

Graphene

The technology of the future, and always will be.

[Muscleguy]

Re: Graphene

I’m 54 and all my life Nuclear Fusion has been 50 years away. The problem with graphene is how to reliably manufacture large enough sheets without breaking them. If for eg you look at the size of the wafer chip sheets they print silicon chips on for graphene to be used it will have to the size of those wafer sheets.

Otherwise the chip manufacturers will have to retool to produce chips single again. Which will mean supply will be greatly limited.

I remember when carbon fibre was the next most wonderful material which was going to transform the world. We were going to live in carbon fibre houses, drive carbon fibre cars and wear carbon fibre clothes. Sure it is now in more places than it used to be but it is still not exactly universal.

[DJO]

Re: Graphene

You want a Carbon fibre car? No problem, McLaren or Lamborghini will be happy to help which is of course the problem, Carbon fibre is still expensive to produce and hard to work with and that's not likely change significantly in the near future.

It has revolutionised racing bicycles and is gaining a foothold in many high performance applications.

Carbon fibre for houses is an amazingly bad idea, the stuff burns and is very light, nobody wants a house that will take off and blow away in a mild breeze.

As for Fusion being perennially 50 years away, it does seem to be coming down slowly, not much but I've heard estimates of 20 to 30 years away and the current research does look promising.

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: Graphene

Nuclear fusion is only about 8 minutes away.

Carbon fiber is widely used, and has penetrated various markets at rates that seem plausible to me, given basic economics. I don't see how that example supports your premise, particularly in areas such as home construction, which tend to be very conservative and largely driven by regulation. We've had concrete homes, rammed-earth homes, Earthships, steel-framed conventional homes, manufactured-and-assembled-on-site homes, etc for decades, but on-site stick framing is still dominant here in the US. Why? Economies of scale, for materials and for expertise; and familiarity.

[HelpfulJohn]

Re: Graphene

Robots doing my housework [while also making cups of tea], my own flying car, power too cheap to meter, fusion power, Moon-bases ... a whole host of things are *always* "thirty to fifty years from now".

Add graphene to the long and depressing list.

[Captain Hogwash]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

I'm not surprised. I suspect the chief benefit will be that the products can now be marketed as containing graphene. Given that the amount of pseudoscience in cosmetics advertising seems to encourage the unthinking to buy more this can only be a win for the producers.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

Yes, how long before Gwyneth Paltrow comes out with a vagina related product that "detoxifies your inner glow with the pure natural beauty of graphene"...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

Just market it as being gluten- and carb-free.

[jake]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

And organic. And non-GMO. And dairy free. And unfiltered. Without tree nuts.

[Chris G]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

Jake, you missed out gluten free, in Spain that us advertised on everything from certain cookies to condoms.

The fact is graphene is in a similar position to that of lasers 60 years ago, a solution to as yet un asked questions. Graphene holds the promise of many things but it's relevant research that will enable it to come good on the promise.

[Tom 7]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

There is little point in doing the research given that almost any use of graphene has been patented and even if you could make the stuff in noticeable quantities you wouldn't make a penny out of it.

Having said that I am training bacteria to make sheets of it an atom at a time and by the time all the patents run out it should be about ready for production.

[Rafael #872397]

Re: The fact is graphene is in a similar position to that of lasers 60 years ago

Or radium 100 years ago...

[Martin Gregorie]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

The fact is graphene is in a similar position to that of lasers 60 years ago

Thats similar to lithium-ion batteries. First demonstrated in 1977, first sold by Sony in 1991, the first device I bought that I know for sure had one in it was a Motorola cellphone, which I bought in 2001. Somewhat later I bought a Compaq iPAD (remember them?) - it used a single, large Lithium-ion cell and was first sold in 2001. Both devices first appeared in the market 24 years after the rechargeable Lithium-ion battery was first demonstrated.

Everything else I owned before then and which ran on rechargeable batteries used NiCd or lead-acid cells.

[GruntyMcPugh]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

@Martin Gregorie: "Compaq iPAD"

Freudian slip there bub, "iPaq" : -)

Yeah, I had one, well two, I had the colour one, and I got that hooked up to my Nokia 5110 via a Psion gold card modem, so I could access my emails while I was on the train, and then I had the thinner monochrome one, and used the IR interface on my Nokia 7110.

[T. F. M. Reader]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

@GruntyMcPugh: No need for a modem. iPAQs were damn useful around 2001. Laptops were bloody expensive, so business trips - any trips, really - involved an iPAQ and a Nokia phone. Turn the IR on both to face each other, the phone serves as a modem, the iPAQ receives and sends email. It was quite affordable back then, too - the telcos hadn't figured out how to fleece the traveling populations yet.

A foldable keyboard made it almost a laptop.

And IIRC at least some iPAQs had cameras which made them very handy to take pictures of whiteboards in business meetings.

I remember thinking, "Wouldn't it be nice if this thing could also make calls...."

[GruntyMcPugh]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

@T F. M. Reader

My first setup needed the Psion Gold Card modem, 'cos my old Nokia 5110 didn't have IR. The modem was a CF card that sat in the top slot. It came with an adapter so it could be used in a PCMCIA slot also. My laptop didn't have a built in modem so this came in quite handy.

Then I got a 7110 with IR and downsized the Ipaq to the monochrome model, and it was about half as thick, but yeah, I was thinking the same thoughts about the two merging into one device. My first smartphone was an Orange SPV M2000 (Qtek 9090), which was very similar in looks to the first colour Ipaq I had. I could web browse, make calls, and I had a curated music collection on several SD cards for my commutes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

Coming next - blockchain enabled cosmetic face masks.

[jonathan keith]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

Graphene blockchains, I hope?

[Clunking Fist]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

Gluten free condoms? Gosh, I hadn't thought of that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

but is it vegan?

[Andy The Hat]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

... and latex, fat, sugar and chemical free?

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

Is it carbon-neutral? Can't have our inner glow contributing to global warming.

("Yes, we've discovered a new sequestration technology. We take a bunch of carbon and shove it ... well, you'll see.")

[macjules]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

Gwyneth Paltrow's vagina? That would be Unobtainium.

[Teiwaz]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

Gwyneth Paltrow's vagina? That would be Unobtainium.

Really?

I'd have thought, webbed in Dreamcatchers, and swimming in Snake Oil.

[Ken Shabby]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

Copper Niton

[macjules]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

Saw a suitcase in a shop in Milan last year advertised that it was 100% made from graphene and hence the cost of €4000. The client I was with said that there is no law in Italy about advertising.

[Robert Carnegie]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

Coincidentally Graphene is a suburb of Venice

[Tom 35]

Re: has not said quite how its cosmetic face masks will benefit from graphene

It's a cool word to put on the box.

[cbars]

Beautiful

Graphene something over my ugly mug will benefit the masses, indeed!

[jake]

I wonder how long it'll be before ...

... Graphene is shown to cause cancer in lab animals.

It is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, after all ... Not all that certain I'd want my Wife spreading it liberally about her person until after several dozen years of the "gotta have it now" crowd beta testing it for the rest of us.

[My-Handle]

Re: I wonder how long it'll be before ...

Graphene tends to lack the hydrogen component that's somewhat typical of hydrocarbons. Also, I believe small flakes of graphene shear off graphite (i.e. pencil lead) all the time, so if it was detrimental to your health I'm inclined to think we'd have found out by now.

Veritasium did a video on Youtube on how you can get small graphene flakes with just a pencil and sellotape. The tricky part seems to be making big sheets of the stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PifL8bAybyc

[jake]

Re: I wonder how long it'll be before ...

I didn't say it was a typical hydrocarbon. I said it was a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. Which it very definitely is.

Also, perhaps mass use of pencils is a cause of the huge uptick in cancers seen world-wide? Kids put those things in their mouths! Maybe the de facto ban on literacy in schools brought about by fondle-slabs and so-called smart phones is actually a good thing?

_{(For the humo(u)r impaired, I'm joking. Mostly.)}

[Evil Auditor]

Re: I wonder how long it'll be before ...

Kids put everything in their mouths! And what is the long-term effect: they die. All of them, without exception.

jake, I think you uncovered the key for eternal life. If it was possible to prevent kids from putting stuff in their mouths.

[Tigra 07]

Re: I wonder how long it'll be before ...

"If it was possible to prevent kids from putting stuff in their mouths"

If it was then everyone would be doing it before sending their kids to church.

[Robert Carnegie]

Re: I wonder how long it'll be before ...

Well, there's Catholic mass...

I believe that because of Covid-19 virus, local churches are now stopping putting the body of Christ in worshippers' mouths as has been usually done, and handing it to you instead. Possibly with gloves.

I heard about an atheist in America who sneaked in once and by legerdemain took the body of Christ home with him. People were ever so cross about that. I think violence was threatened but I don't firmly recall.

[Teiwaz]

Re: I wonder how long it'll be before ...

jake, I think you uncovered the key for eternal life. If it was possible to prevent kids from putting stuff in their mouths.

Now if only we could stop a certain class of male from inserting appendages in Vacuum Cleaner nozzles, we'd have a more thoughtful race from the cradle to the casualty bed.

maybe.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: I wonder how long it'll be before ...

"If it was possible to prevent kids from putting stuff in their mouths."

If I'm to believe what I'm told is common practice on porn sites, surely women in general and female porn stars in particular should have a shorter lifespan than men.

[Timmy B]

Re: I wonder how long it'll be before ...

"I said it was a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. Which it very definitely is."

It very definitely is not. The "hydro" is missing. Graphene is just carbon atoms with no hydrogen.

[EnviableOne]

Re: I wonder how long it'll be before ...

inorder to be aromatic, it need to to have dis-associated rings as per benzene, toluene and the xylenes. in-order to be a hydrocarbon it needs Hydrogen, and it has no unicyclyic loops let alone any polycyclic ones.

Graphene is pure carbon tightly bound in sheets more akin to flat Buckminsterfullerene

[batfink]

Re: I wonder how long it'll be before ...

Nah. Wider sellotape.

[STGlove]

Re: I wonder how long it'll be before ...

I wonder how long it'll be before ...

... Graphene is shown to cure cancer in pseudoscience youtube channels or some dick of a USA God preacher

[Martin Gregorie]

Re: I wonder how long it'll be before ...

It is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, after all ...

No, it is not. Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms, organized in a hexagonal lattice that forms a two-dimensional sheet. It is 100% carbon, so cannot be described as an aromatic hydrocarbon.

- ex-chemist, who wrote his MSc thesis on graphite intercalation compounds.

Intercalation compounds are graphite structures with a layer of an inorganic compound, e.g. Ferric chloride, FeCl₃, in between adjacent sheets of carbon. We'd now call those sheets graphene, but that word wasn't used until Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov peeled those carbon layers apart and decsribed them in 2004.

[Clunking Fist]

Re: I wonder how long it'll be before ...

"- ex-chemist, who wrote his MSc thesis on graphite intercalation compounds"

Pfft, but I read something on the internet that says you're wrong.

Mine's the one with Ripleys Believe it or Not VHS in the pocket

[Anonymous Coward]

Did a bit of digging out of curiosity.

"These sheet masks are face-shaped sheet fabrics which utilise the thermal and electrical conductivity of graphene to help the skin absorb its contents through bioelectric currents."

That sounds like something Gwyneth Paltrow would say.

Then we get to the real rub of the green,

Keith Broadbent, Haydale CEO, said: "Following significant research and development, it is great to see a graphene-based product launched for the health and beauty sector. Working alongside iCraft, we anticipate a number of graphene enhanced products will now be launched both in the cosmetic market and in the wider fight against counterfeit goods."

I'm guessing from that they are going to use graphene as some kind of identifier on products and as it is difficult to reproduce it will help to identify counterfeit goods (for now).

[GruntyMcPugh]

@AC

I didn't dig, as soon as I saw "Derek Yoon did say it "plans to create synergy"" I knew it was good old BS. Only wankers use the word 'synergy.

[Terry 6]

The whole phrase "plans to create synergy with the existing business by striving to expand various related products and applying graphene" just reeks of marketing gibberish.

[Pascal Monett]

Absolutely. The sentence is exactly as nebulous and empty as it needs to be while still making the clueless believe that there is meaning in it.

So, your beauty products have graphene ? I'm thrilled, but do they have Bucky balls ? No ? I need the additional bounce of Bucky balls.

Sarcasm aside, chalk up another CEO and entire company on my black list. He is clearly just in it for the money, and it is impossible for me to imagine that anybody in that company is not in the same mindset.

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

"He is clearly just in it for the money, and it is impossible for me to imagine that anybody in that company is not in the same mindset."

I get your general drift, but can you point out *anyone* in business who isn't in it for the money?

[I ain't Spartacus]

Loads of people aren't just in it for the money. That doesn't mean they don't like money - but does mean that they like other things.

For example my Dad set up his own business. When he was already a national sales manager for a decent sized company, with prospects of eventually directorship. Or going somewhere else. He took a large pay cut to do it, and I very much doubt he made any more money from his very successful business, than if he'd stayed employed - I suspect he'd have made MD somewhere.

The difference was that he was working for himself, he was in charge, and he got to call the shots. The work was no easier, but there was probably more of the engineering and relationship building stuff he enjoyed and less of the management he didn't.

And I know quite a few other people who've done similar. They are driven by money, they want to have more than enough of it and they like spending it. But they also like the challenge. And they want their company to match their personality - my company work for several very nerdy companies set up by very enthusiastic engineers with great ideas.

I remember reading a few times about salary negotiations in Formula 1. Where the salaries for the top guys go up, not because they're massively greedy, but because they want to prove they're the best. And you prove you're the best by winning - but also do that by making sure you get paid more than anyone else - thus proving that the people within the sport also think you're the best. It's more of a dominance game, who can piss the highest, than greed.

[jonathan keith]

Likewise with the super-rich. Almost literally impossible to spend all the money they have, so money simply becomes another scoreboard in the Billionaires' Dick-Swinging Contest, alongside the larger-than-yours mega-motorboats (which most certainly are not yachts), ultra-short-run hypercars and all the rest of the monstrously vulgar geegaws they acquire in place of friends.

[Terry 6]

Seeing that (my) quote again, it reminded me of one of those sentence generators that put together a line of business jargon.

This sort of thing;

https://projects.wsj.com/buzzwords2014/#p=5|27|28|21|||2

(Googled and selected at random).

[96percentchimp]

Follow the money

I read it as Haydale has graphene but it doesn't yet have the cutting edge customers/applications that the investors were promised would deliver megabucks. The investors want to see ROI/repayment of credit. iCraft needs something techy for its bullshit cosmetics.

Haydale stays afloat while the genuine tech & engineering applications follow their slow journey along the Gartner hype cycle, and the people it employs keep their jobs.

That's your synergy, right there.

[Steve Davies 3]

"synergy"

Any company that still uses that term is one to avoid like Covid-19.

[JimboSmith]

A boss many years ago defined Synergies in a meeting for us. He said it's a word used in press releases especially after a merger. It refers to job losses that are a short way off and caused by the merger. "Immediate cost savings" refers to imminent mass sackings. When the firm merged with a rival both words were used in abundance.

[GruntyMcPugh]

@Terry 6

I wonder if he used a mission statement generator for that crapola:

http://www.jonhaworth.com/toys/mission-statement-generator

[Teiwaz]

Only wankers use the word 'synergy.

I can't decide.

Is Synergy a woody sort of word, or is it tinny.

[Hero Protagonist]

Tinny, no question about it

[jonathan keith]

I get more of a sort of oily, greasy feel from it.

[batfink]

How exactly is this going "help in the fight against counterfeit goods"? Are your normal ebay-buying punters going to somehow tell that this facemask has genuine graphene whereas that one is merely clingwrap?

[John Brown (no body)]

"How exactly is this going "help in the fight against counterfeit goods"? Are your normal ebay-buying punters going to somehow tell that this facemask has genuine graphene whereas that one is merely clingwrap?"

If you can roll it up into a tube and write with it, then it contains graphene. Simples!

[jmch]

Manufacturing?

I thought that one of the biggest hurdles to overcome, and that hasn't been remotely addressed yet, is how to manufacture it industrially at a large scale and consistently. maybe I'm wide of the mark here but isn't graphene production still very manual-intensive and a bit hit-and-miss?

[Wandering Reader]

Re: Manufacturing?

"but isn't graphene production still very manual-intensive and a bit hit-and-miss?"

Well, the failures are a by-product and perfect for the cosmetics industry. Whereas the good stuff can go somewhere that the Graphene properties are relevant and useful.

(I'm guessing)

[Pascal Monett]

Re: Manufacturing?

Don't forget that, in cosmetics, it's like homeopathy : you just need one molecule of the stuff in the bottle to claim that said product contains that molecule.

Actually, that would mean that cosmetics are still marginally more honest than homeopathy.

[Steve Aubrey]

Re: Manufacturing?

And then there was the homeopath who drank distilled water and died of an overdose . . .

[Terry 6]

Re: Manufacturing?

It's like that 1970s Egg shampoo. Apocryphally the CEO would ceremonially crack an egg into the vat at the start of every batch.

[katrinab]

Re: Manufacturing?

Grab a lump of graphite. Grind it to a powder. It will have some graphene in it. Mix it with some organic snake oil and you have a serum you can sell for $500 per bottle.

[Tom 7]

Re: Manufacturing?

Grab a lump of graphite, stick some sellotape on it, pull it off and you will have some graphene on the sellotape. That's how it was 'invented' and now has more patents than the mousetrap.

[batfink]

Re: Manufacturing?

Surely we now have the technology to automate the conjunction of pencil leads and sellotape?

Maybe the problem is that they're using pencil leads that are too small, so the sellotape keeps sticking to itself as they try to pull the layers off.

[jonathan keith]

Re: Manufacturing?

Isn't graphene production still very manual-intensive and a bit hit-and-miss?

Only if you want it to be used to actually do something.

[Conundrum1885]

Graphene

Well I am still waiting for the mythical "Room Temperature Magic Angle" material.

I had to resort to making my own version using HEAs, writing up the paper now.

Alas mine still won't work at a range of temperatures but if anyone wants a copy

of the paper as it stands please message me.

Also it appears that though Pb doped graphene does have "interesting" properties

it won't work properly due to Fermil level inconsistencies. I did try but its just not

stable enough for large scale applications.

Its a remarkable thing to see a 10:1 resistance drop in any material but to see it

with something so simple.

[druck]

Quantum Graphene

Well at least graphene has found some even some modicum of usefulness, which is more than we'll be saying for the government's recent £93m investment in quantum computing.

But then I'm willing to be proved wrong, or right, or both simultaneously.

[Headley_Grange]

Thin

I've went to an IMechEng lecture a couple of years ago by a researcher from the Manchester Uni. graphene institute that's partly funded by the government grant. Things might have moved on since then, but the main problem seemed to be that as soon as it's more than a few dozen or so molecules thick it stops being graphene and becomes more like graphite. The poor lad giving the lecture got quite a hard time during the questioning (there were lots of materials engineers there) and in the end fessed up that a lot of the current "grapene technology" being touted was little different from the graphite squash racket type applications from the 90s. One of the engineers in the audience also asked (a bit unfairly) why all the government money was being put into graphene when there were other single-layer type materials not based on carbon with similar properties that might better lend themselves to industrialization.

The main thing I took away from the lecture was that those Mech Eng types are a lot more aggressive than us electronics engineers. The poor researcher must have had a miserable trip back to Manchester.

[Pascal Monett]

He must have been quite relieved to be on his way to Manchester and not still being grilled by maniacs.

A bit unfairly ? I think it is quite unfair to ask an engineer why the Government is doing something. That smacks of gratuitous put-down and I would have thought that there would be a smidgen of enough intelligence in a room full of Engineers to avoid that kind of pettiness.

Goes to show that education and intelligence are still two different things.

[Anonymous Coward]

@PM

I disagree fundamentally.

The problem is that researchers nowadays are not only giving "straight bat" presentations of their research work and its results. They are also instructed - and this really is an instruction and part of their KPIs - to be active in outreach and advocacy. The rules of that game - again being set by the higher-ups - are not those of peer reviewed science. They are of unmitigated hype, lying by ommission, etc.

I would guess a lecture to an audience outside of the specialistion falls into this catagory, and hard-nosed questioning is *exactly* what is appropriate.

[Tom 7]

Re: Thin

Manufacturing of graphite will require something far better at doing chemicals than we are and will probably be down to bacteria or even a virus that has been mutated to simply add carbon atoms at the edge of a sheet of graphene. Once we have sheets of graphene we may be able to put layers of them together and then we may have something beautiful to play with. All the modern chemical/thermal attempts will be hamstrung by thermal noise and sheets will always join together at the wrong place producing posh soot which Paltrow may push where the sun dont shine.

On thing I like the idea of is graphene cones which could be used to make cold thermionic valves allowing cheap high voltage amps making electrostatic sound walls a cheap quality replacement for those fucking mp3 players for deaf bats.

[Anonymous Coward]

Still tiny amounts of funding

Tens of millions really isn't that much and investment made so recently. New technology takes time and money.

[Anonymous Coward]

"pointed out that trillions of dollars had been invested in semiconductor technology since the first device in 1947. To expect broad application of graphene in commercial products in the time since it was first discovered, in 2004, is unrealistic, the paper said."

What does being realistic have anything to do with investment these days. Products and profit are wanted yesterday, if they can't be then screw it, no money for you. But will pour money into companies that actually have nothing, with the hope it will be bought by another.

Only a few people these days look at the long term view. Most things that don't return quickly are dumped, investors want it...

[Matthew Smith]

Manchester Graphene building is awesome

It cost £35 million of the research grant. The roof is a nature garden with 21 (TWENTY ONE!) different types of grass on it.

[CAPS LOCK]

Re: Manchester Graphene building is awesome

Not being sarcastic here - money well spent. I spent a good deal of undergraduate time in one of the worst building ever built[1] and it was purgatory.

[1] Let's name names, it was the Worsley Building at Leeds.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Manchester Graphene building is awesome

>the Worsley Building at Leeds.

Just Googled it, urgh hideous brutalist architecture just like (De)Preston bus station which some asshole decided needed listing.

[katrinab]

Re: Manchester Graphene building is awesome

It is the second largest bus station in the world, and therefore very important, for some reason or other.

The largest by the way is in Helsinki.

[TRT]

Re: Manchester Graphene building is awesome

That was the day when two architects stood in front of the bus station and one turned to the other and said "You know that job we've got on at Leeds? Well take look at this building... Now, can you make one any worsely than this?"

[GruntyMcPugh]

Re: Manchester Graphene building is awesome

@CAPS LOCK: "Worsley Building"

OK, I just googled that, and for some reason, I've been there,..... do they specialise in brain injuries?

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Re: Manchester Graphene building is awesome

Ok, that's random enough for a new keyboard

[TRT]

Re: Manchester Graphene building is awesome

Causing them or curing them?

[CAPS LOCK]

"do they specialise in brain injuries?"

Well, I was never the same. Recent, I hear, they moved the rats out of the animal testing floor and, you won't believe this, installed a computer/data processing department. "Rats/computer people, much the same"

[Anonymous Coward]

flawed logic

It took 20-30 years for X to be a success, therefore in 30 years Y will be a success...

[batfink]

Re: flawed logic

Agreed. I can't see the relevance of these other technologies mentioned. Just because it took X years to go from, say Silicon to the chip doesn't infer that some use of a new material will also take X years. Also the "chip" use of silicon is a bit random. What about the time it took from the discovery of silicon to, say, silicon pot-holders? Or some other random use? How many years did it take from the discovery of rubber to develop the rubber ball?

[Andre Carneiro]

Re: flawed logic

That’s not what he said.

[Terry 6]

Re: flawed logic

That wasn't what they were saying. Straw man argument there.

Which was #It took 30+ years for x to be a success so it's unreasonable to be demanding y be a success in a much shorter amount of time#

[W60]

Seems to me what versarien are doing is more interesting with graphene than masks some collaboration on 3d printed bridges over railway lines... I am lead to believe Haydale dont make their own graphene

[Anonymous Coward]

Creating synergy is semantically equal to I am talking bollocks

Change my mind.

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone have a view about the increase (I guess) of graphene into the environment? I've read that micro-plastics are creating real issues.

[Anonymous Coward]

micro-plastics are an issue because they don't break down chemically. By comparison, graphene will happily combine with almost anything, to form other carbon compounds.

There is already so much carbon around that the amount extra from graphene usage is unlikely to be significant.

[Anonymous Coward]

"graphene will happily combine with almost anything,"

does it evaporate?

[Robert Carnegie]

You could call it a polymer. It'll burn or oxidise, I would imagine.

It's just a flat sheet of carbon atoms in a hexagonal lattice arrangement.

Carbon dioxide is oxidized carbon, and a gas. I suppose carbon monoxide is possible. A more dangerous gas to breathe. It should oxidise to give you carbon dioxide... maybe eventually?

[John Brown (no body)]

"or oxidise,"

Oxidised carbon? Ooohh Noooeesss!

I'll just carry it thanks, it's a bit warm today ----------->

[mhoneywell]

Graphene Soles

Where have you people been.....these guys put it in their sneakers / trainers!

https://www.inov-8.com/f-lite-g-300-mens

[TimMaher]

Re: Graphene Soles

Yup.

Recommended by the Independent this Tuesday just gone.

Also, I invested in two graphene using companies when it first became well known.

On AIM some years ago now.

One of them was blindingly successful and got bought out within a year or two, over 100% gain, thanks very much.

The second, doing oil filtration products in SE Asia, has been in my dog basket for just about as long.

Ah well!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Graphene Soles

Interesting.

I came up with an idea for a graphene based quantum device, the problem is that its at least 10 years away.

Alas to make it work would need femtoscale engineering, in the form of making specific isotopes of carbon and then turning that into methane, depositing the graphene on a substrate and then using lasers to "fuse" individual atoms of lead into specified locations.

[Arthur the cat]

Change a word

"We are hoping that graphene cosmetic face mask sheets will get a good response in the global cosmetic market"

1. s/cosmetic/coronavirus/g

2. Profit

[Anonymous Coward]

File next to fusion power, hover boots, robot housekeepers as being

"...about 10 years off"

Pretty much the same as 40 years ago then.

[trindflo]

I just want to know ...

I just want to know if the masks are any better at preventing creepy facial recognition cams from identifying me as Carlos the Jackal

[jonathan keith]

Re: I just want to know ...

+++ Analysing facial recognition scan +++

+++ Facemask detected, beginning detailed analysis +++

+++ Graphene facemask detected +++

+++ Alerting Armed Response units +++

[Stuart Halliday]

Remove any grants from any company saying 'synergy'....

[a pressbutton]

Real World Uses

see https://graphenecomposites.com/

seems that they have a lightweight bullet proof vest that will stop a 7.62

https://calvin-benton.squarespace.com/

[Conundrum1885]

Fusion

Incidentally I came up with the idea of fusing cheap (small) pyrolytic graphite sheets together using a pulsed 445nm laser M140 1.6W with glass 3 element lens, RF HV discharge and pressure under argon to make a larger monolithic sheet.

I wonder if there is anything like this in the literature because some searches revealed very little data.

The "secret sauce" is using a pulse transformer from a £9 plasma lighter to generate a radio frequency discharge along the sheet that causes the adjoining surfaces to fuse, similar to the slow process that generates pyrolytic graphite in the first place, with the laser scanning along each axis sequentially.

Its possible to use this process to make HTSCs as well by the "Direct" method with metal carbonates and oxides so BSCCO is incredibly simple.