The Connection of Graphene and Engineering

A physics professor at the University of Manchester, named Andre Geim, one day discovered a new material called graphene. It's a mixture of graphite and suffix, that creates a whole new 2D material. It is considered 2D because it is literally one atom thick. It is essentially a sheet of carbon atoms. If you laid multitudinous sheets on top of each other it would form graphite. Here is the predicament. It is expensive and rare, as expected.

This material can revolutionize electrical and computer engineering. Graphene is exceedingly strong, lightweight, and it is malleable. But, by far the most significant attribute of graphene is its conductivity. It is more conductive than silver and it's efficiency is extraordinary. In fact, if a certain amount of lithium atoms were placed in graphene it would become a superconductor. Which means, it will have absolutely no resistance. No heat will emerge and the same amount of energy put in one end will come out the other. And this could be used in microprocessors to make highly productive computers which will never malfunction due to overheating in the processor. In fact, graphene used as a superconductor will have temperatures of -267 degrees Celsius. This is a little too cold. However, if the placement of those lithium atoms is manipulated and chosen precisely the temperatures could rise and make the material more practical to use. However, it would still be quite cold. This also means that if graphene is used in more parts of computers, the idea of a cooling system could be expunged.

Graphene's conductivity is indeed its strongest characteristic. However, its durability and malleability shouldn't be ignored. If graphene becomes more popular and is mass produced, then its prices will eventually decrease. It can be used in much larger quantities and can be used as often as other, more common materials. It can be used in structures. Bridges and buildings could have beams coated with graphene. Graphene could be used for wiring in the buildings for outlets and lighting. Due to its malleability, it could be used in the crumple zones of cars for better safety. It can also be used for phone displays to allow for curved and bendable screens/displays. There are a variety of different uses. However, right now it is an extremely expensive and sparse material, meaning these ideas are quite far-fetched.

When silver was discovered it was similar to the discovery of graphene. It was not available to consumers for a long time and was not widely used. It seemed like something that was reserved for the very best of things. Until its prices dropped suddenly and it was used for more things. It is still expensive and rare today, but substantially less than when it was first discovered. I think graphene will take a similar path. It will start off by being used exclusively in expensive government-use goods, such as supercomputers. Slowly it will make its way to bourgeois consumers. It will be used in ECU's of cars such as Rolls-Royce's and the wiring in the mansions of millionaires. Also, in supercomputers/servers in commercial use. Then, it will be available to the middle class. It will be a realistic, acquirable luxury. That is probably the point where it will stay for my entire life. But years after that it has potential to be a much more common metal. That's when it may be used to do things such as coat steel beams.

Graphene proves to also have a lot of problems, which are possible to fix, but will take a long time. So this question arises. Is it worth it to bring more attention to graphene, when a potentially better material could be found soon in the future? Well since we can't predict the future, its a difficult question to answer. In fact, its pointless to try and answer it because of that. Unless there already has been a new material, similar to graphene that was recently discovered, there is no debate that graphene is at least, an important, worthwhile material. While there are competitors such as fiber optics in terms of lack of resistance, graphene is more simple. It is a new type of wire made with a material besides copper. And graphene still has other attributes, which make it stand out, like its strength. It shows signs of lots of future development.

Graphene is another wonderful discovery made by scientists that can easily be disregarded and forgotten. I see lots of potential for it in the future. There is point where we have to stop trying to upgrade old materials and replace them with new ones. Many things follow that principle. That principle is why people change their cars, houses, computers, etc. Alas, the same has been said by others for many other scientific discoveries. And it seems like all this research is just a waste of time if it is not developed.