Northern Illinois University researchers have developed an easy technique for manufacturing high volumes of graphene, a well-known carbon nanostructure.
Amartya Chakrabarti shows a graphene sample manufactured using the dry-ice method.
Graphene is a two-dimensional nanomaterial featuring one layer of carbon atoms arrayed in a hexagonal lattice. It is the strongest material available and has several other superior performance properties such as high electron mobility, which allows the material to be used in next-generation ultra-speed nano-sized instruments.
The scientists reported their new process in the Journal of Materials Chemistry. As per the method, pure magnesium metal is burned in dry ice to enable direct conversion of CO2 into few-layer graphene with thickness below 10 atoms.
According to Narayan Hosmane, who is the head of the Northern Illinois University research group and a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, it has already been demonstrated scientifically that burning magnesium metal in CO2 generates carbon. However, the creation of carbon having few-layer graphene as the primary product has neither been discovered nor demonstrated before, he added.
Hosmane continued that few-layer graphene can be produced in huge quantities using
this synthetic method, which is easy, eco-friendly and economical when compared to other processes using tedious techniques and harmful chemicals. The research group originally began the research to produce single-wall carbon nanotubes, but ended up in the production of few-layer graphene, he added.