Graphene 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

According to the writer at Forbes, this breakthrough process may mean that the whole materials industry is going to be transformed. Amazingly, ounce per ounce, it's 200x stronger than steel yet light weight and stretchable.

Industries are anxious to use it. Ford Motor Co. has been putting it in every vehicle they make since 2020. The cost of using it in manufacturing will go down now that there's a less expensive way to get it.

Cement is responsible for 8% of global carbon emissions. If concrete is produced with just 0.03% of it being graphene, the resulting concrete is 25% stronger. So construction companies could use a quarter less concrete. How much carbon emission would that save? Very much -- an amount equal to the annual emissions of the nation of Brazil.

Medically there are ways to use graphene as well. Here's how Dr. Tour's team created graphene nanoribbons which were used to repair the spinal cord in a rat by enabling nerve cells to reconnect. If you make it through all the chemistry, you'll learn near the end that this method might in the future reconnect optic nerves in the eye.