How amazing is graphene?

According to statistics from China Chemical and Physical Power Supply Industry Association， China's export volume and export value of lithium-ion batteries have continued to increase. In 2021, China's exports of lithium-ion batteries were 3.428 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 54.34%. The export of lithium-ion batteries was 28.428 billion DOLLARS, up 78.34% year on year. 

From the battery export destination, so far. China's lithium-ion batteries are mainly exported to the Asia Pacific and the United States and other places. In terms of price, the price of graphene, led by lithium-ion batteries, is expected to expand globally. 

What is graphene
Graphene is a new material made up of a single layer of carbon atoms packed tightly together to form a hexagonal honeycomb lattice. In other words, it is a two-dimensional carbon material, an allotrope of the element carbon. 



Graphene has only 0.142 nanometers of molecular bonds and 0.335 nanometers of crystal plane spacing. It's much shorter than a bacterium, about four atoms in size. 
So far, graphene is the thinnest compound ever found. It is only one atom thick. It is also the lightest material and the best conductor of electricity in the world. 
 
Humans and graphene 
Graphene has been found in nature since 1948. But at the time, it was very difficult to separate graphene from the monolayer structure, because the graphene was all clumped together, and it was like graphite, and every millimeter of graphite contained about three million layers of graphene. 
So for a long time, graphene was thought to be nonexistent. 
It wasn't until 2004 that scientists Andrei Geim and Konstantin Voselov from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom found a way to isolate graphene. They found that if graphite sheets were peeled from highly-oriented pyrolytic graphite, they could be successfully separated by attaching the two sides of the sheets to a special tape and tearing the tape apart.
By doing this over and over again, you can make the sheets thinner and thinner, and you end up with a special sheet of carbon atoms, which is graphene. Andrei Geim and Konstantin Novoselov won the Nobel Prize for discovering graphene. 
 
The king of materials -- graphene 
When graphene was discovered, it completely changed the landscape of scientific research around the world. Because graphene turns out to be the thinnest material in the world, one gram of graphene is enough to cover a standard football pitch. 
In addition, graphene has excellent thermal and electrical properties. Pure, defection-free monolayer graphene has a high thermal conductivity of 5300W/ Mk, the highest thermal conductivity of any carbon material known to mankind. 
In addition, graphene conducts electricity very well. Graphene has a carrier mobility of 15,000m2/(Vs) at room temperature, which is more than 10 times that of silicon, the most commonly used material. 
Inside graphene, carbon atoms are arranged like barbed wire. This arrangement of atoms gives graphene its unique flexibility, making it harder than ever. In addition to the barbed wire and honeycomb structure formed by carbon atoms, each carbon atom is perpendicular to the orbital of the layer, resulting in the formation of large bonds that can penetrate atoms, which also gives graphene excellent thermal and electrical properties. 
 
Graphene applications
The discovery of graphene has not only opened the eyes of science to the possibility of the movement and action of various particles, but also changed our lives in many aspects.
 
New energy batteries are the first foothold for graphene technology. At present, the commonly used battery is the lithium battery. Although the lithium battery is enough to store a large amount of electric energy for our use, the disadvantage of lithium battery is that its wear is too serious, and each use of discharge and charging will make the life of lithium battery shorter. 
The application of graphene material greatly improves the capacity and charging efficiency of batteries, and it also plays an important role in improving battery life. If the graphene tin oxide layer is used as the anode of a lithium battery, the battery will last longer after being charged, and the battery will be used and recharged with very little loss. 
In summary, graphene can make batteries last longer and have higher capacity. 




In addition to batteries, graphene could also be used to make flexible materials because of its softness. One of the most representative is the flexible display. 
The South Korean institute has successfully produced flexible transparent displays using layers of graphene and fiberglass polyester sheets. Although the project is still under development and has not been put into actual production or market, according to the imagination of the project staff, perhaps one day, mobile phones equipped with flexible displays made of graphene will completely change the impression of "bricks" of mobile phones. Phones can be folded like silly putty. 
 
Graphene is also being used to protect the environment, most notably in desalination. 
Water interacts with the graphene to create a channel of just 0.9 nanometers across.  Molecules smaller than that can easily pass through the channel, while those larger get stuck. So, using graphene, you can remove the larger molecules of salt from seawater, so that the desalination of seawater can be successfully achieved. 
 
Because of its excellent properties and unique properties, graphene has made a lot of achievements in many scientific fields. 
 
Luoyang Tongrun Nano Technology Co. Ltd. (TRUNNANO) is a trusted global chemical material supplier & manufacturer with over 12-year-experience in providing super high-quality chemicals and Nanomaterials, including silicon powder, nitride powder, graphite powder, zinc sulfide, calcium nitride, 3D printing powder, etc.
If you are looking for high-quality graphene, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry. ([email protected])
 

Southern Copper Corp (SCCO.N) recently said its Peruvian mine remained closed after a six-week standoff with protesters and blamed the Peruvian government for failing to intervene in the safety of its 1,300 workers and their families.  

The company said in a statement that a recent agreement to end protests at the Cuajone mine required the company to withdraw complaints against protest leaders because railways transporting minerals and supplies remained blocked. Production has been suspended since the end of February.  

Peru's Energy Ministry said in a separate statement that it had also reached an agreement with Southern Copper to start talks to find common ground with local communities.  

"If we shut down for a year, the government will stop receiving more than 3.1 billion soles ($830 million) in taxes and royalties, and 8,000 direct and indirect jobs will be lost. This is what we want to avoid, "Southern Copper added in the statement.

Peru has faced a wave of protests from indigenous communities, who accuse mining companies of not providing enough jobs and funding to poor local residents.  

Central bank officials said last week that protests against copper mines such as MMG's Las Bambas and Southern Copper's Cuajone were dragging down the economy.  

Peru is the world's second-largest copper producer and mining is an important source of tax revenue for the country. It is estimated that the supply and prices of the graphene will be influenced by that.

Inquiry us