Graphene

Scientists have fashioned graphene into microscopic balloons they say can distinguish between different kinds of noble gases, by measuring how long the gas takes to escape through tiny perforations in the surface of the balloons.

Lightning is a major trigger for wildfires, like the record-breaking blazes that devastated Australia and California this year. But what if we could redirect lightning to strike safely? Graphene particles trapped in a tractor beam could do just that.

Silicon has been the material of choice for electronics for decades, but it’s beginning to bump up against efficiency limits. Now engineers at UC Berkeley have created metallic graphene nanoribbons, which can make wires for all-carbon electronics.

Perovskite is emerging as a promising material for solar cells, but it has some durability problems. Now, engineers have developed a new electrode that could make them more stable, using a protective layer of "graphene armor."

Among its many other remarkable qualities, graphene is the world's strongest human-made material. It's perhaps not all that surprising, therefore, that it's now been incorporated into a chain-protecting bicycle lubricant – and quite a pricey one, at that.

Graphene, the electrically-conductive "wonder material" made up of a one-atom-thick sheet of linked carbon atoms, already has many uses. It now has another, however, as the active ingredient in a sensor that detects food spoilage.

Scientists are claiming a breakthrough in the development of graphene nanoribbons, devising a method that has enabled them to efficiently produce the ultra-thin strips directly on the surface of semiconductors for the first time.

Scientists at the University of Manchester have developed a new type of smart textile that could enable thermally adaptive clothing, using graphene to alter its thermal radiation properties via electrical tuning.

Graphene may be a versatile material, but it remains tricky to produce in large amounts. Now, an MIT team has found a new way to make large sheets of graphene in a roll-to-roll process, by depositing it onto a substrate that can easily be peeled off.

Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have created a form of nitrogen that’s never been seen before. Nicknamed “black nitrogen,” the new substance is crystalline, occurs in two-dimensional sheets, and could be useful in advanced electronics.

ESA is looking at using the world's thinnest known material to build lighter, more efficient solar sails. By making sails out of one-atom-thick graphene sheets, the space agency aims to make sails capable of propelling unmanned interstellar missions.

While the high cost of production has proven a limitation to the widespread adoption of carbon fiber, scientists have found that a small amount of graphene could not only make it more affordable, but possibly stronger and stiffer at the same time.