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posted by chromas on Friday April 20 2018, @10:57AM   Printer-friendly
from the ⬡-(aka-WHITE-HEXAGON) dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

MIT engineers have developed a continuous manufacturing process that produces long strips of high-quality graphene.

The team's results are the first demonstration of an industrial, scalable method for manufacturing high-quality graphene that is tailored for use in membranes that filter a variety of molecules, including salts, larger ions, proteins, or nanoparticles. Such membranes should be useful for desalination, biological separation, and other applications.

[...] For many researchers, graphene is ideal for use in filtration membranes. A single sheet of graphene resembles atomically thin chicken wire and is composed of carbon atoms joined in a pattern that makes the material extremely tough and impervious to even the smallest atom, helium.

Researchers, including Karnik's group, have developed techniques to fabricate graphene membranes and precisely riddle them with tiny holes, or nanopores, the size of which can be tailored to filter out specific molecules. For the most part, scientists synthesize graphene through a process called chemical vapor deposition, in which they first heat a sample of copper foil and then deposit onto it a combination of carbon and other gases.

Graphene-based membranes have mostly been made in small batches in the laboratory, where researchers can carefully control the material's growth conditions. However, Hart and his colleagues believe that if graphene membranes are ever to be used commercially they will have to be produced in large quantities, at high rates, and with reliable performance.

[...] The researchers set out to build an end-to-end, start-to-finish manufacturing process to make membrane-quality graphene.

The team's setup combines a roll-to-roll approach — a common industrial approach for continuous processing of thin foils — with the common graphene-fabrication technique of chemical vapor deposition, to manufacture high-quality graphene in large quantities and at a high rate.

Source: https://news.mit.edu/2018/manufacturing-graphene-rolls-ultrathin-membranes-0418


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 20 2018, @11:03AM (5 children)

    That's damned nifty. Not as amazing as if they could do the same thing with bacon but still neat.

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Friday April 20 2018, @11:16AM (4 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday April 20 2018, @11:16AM (#669593) Journal

    Not as amazing as if they could do the same thing with bacon but still meat

    But is it just hype or is it real meat? Let's see some commercially available graphene-based batteries, water filters, transistors, bulletproof vests, etc. now.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 20 2018, @03:31PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 20 2018, @03:31PM (#669675)

      They just now figured out how to mass-produce the material. It's a bit early to demand the existence of mass-produced products based on it, don't you think?

      Imagine in the stone age:
      "Hey, look, I've found out how to make and control fire!"
      "Useless stuff. I've never seen anyone doing anything useful with fire."