We think that gold is one of the most precious things in the world, that is filled with riches and that having gold is our ultimate dream. Well, we are wrong when it comes to gold being the most important thing in the world. It actually is graphene, a two dimensional carbon nanomaterial with many industrial uses. Graphene is actually more valuable than gold and is beneficial to our Earth. Graphene is used in buildings and all different types of things but at the moment it is rare. Graphene was discovered in 2004 and it uses a lot of chemicals and chemical reactions in a lab for it to be made. That means it’s very expensive for it to be produced and it is limited to its production.
Graphene is 100 times stronger than steel, very light, and super stretchy which makes it a very useful resource. There has been a study to show that graphene can actually be made from garbage. The study here shows that using a ultra hot flash of electricity/lightning targeted on a piece of trash can create a piece of 2 dimensional graphene. This causes a reaction that forces all other elements held in that piece of trash to change into gas and expel out of the item. And that’s what makes it two dimensional. This reduces the amount of money that will be spent in laboratories to create this powerful product.
The amount of energy used to create this 5,000 degree fahrenheit lightning bolt uses as much energy to run a dishwasher for an hour and a half. If we create flash graphene with using trash such as old food or plastic water bottles it actually keeps the carbon from reentering the atmosphere because the items would not be decomposing and their layer of carbon would be transformed into graphene. What’s interesting about flash graphene is that this idea isn’t new to research, but it is the first time that they have actually done it and it worked. But with this flash graphene, it can make graphene a more common object used in everyday things such as buildings, medicine, batteries, and electronics since now it is still used rarely.
Graphene can slice cement’s 8 percent carbon release down by one third and it can reduce methane emissions. This is very useful to keeping our earth clean. Graphene still has a long way to go with upscaling and production. Researchers also have to find a way to make different types of graphene to differentiate buildings and medicine graphene. Though if you can trap the gases that the items emit when it is zapped and then sell them back to the chemical industry then you would be able to make graphene in bulk.
It is going to take time but researchers are on the right path. There is such demand for resources and graphene is something that can help change the use of toxic to the Earth products. Graphene would be able to help our waste and emissions problem. It is hopefully something that will become more common in the future since it has such a positive impact.
Works Cited
Garcia, Sierra. “This Ultra-Strong Nanomaterial Could Cut Carbon Emissions – and It’s Made out of Garbage.” Grist, Grist, 10 Feb. 2020, grist.org/climate/this-ultra-strong-nanomaterial-could-cut-carbon-emissions-and-its-made-out-of-garbage/.
