Physicists from the United States accidentally discovered that graphene can generate energy using the environment and will become a new word in energy and bionics in the near future.
The existence of graphene in nature is a phenomenon that became possible due to the fact that scientists found a "loophole" in the laws of physics and forced a continuous two-dimensional atomic canvas to behave like a three-dimensional material. More and more new studies are revealing useful applications of this material, and the predictions sound very encouraging: it turned out that graphene can be used to obtain an almost infinite amount of energy!
Accidental discovery
A team of physicists led by researchers from the University of Arkansas made the discovery by accident. The original purpose of their testing was to study the vibration of graphene - but for what?
We are all familiar with grainy graphite, which is commonly used in conjunction with ceramic components to create a pencil shaft. The black strip that remains after the pencil lead runs over the paper is, in fact, thin sheets of carbon atoms that easily slide over each other. For many years, physicists have wondered: is it possible to isolate such a sheet and make it an independent two-dimensional plane?
In 2004, physicists from the University of Manchester succeeded. To exist separately from each other, sheets of carbon atoms need to behave like a three-dimensional material to provide the necessary stability. It turned out that the "loophole" in this case is the displacement of mobile atoms, which gives graphene the properties of the third dimension. In other words, graphene was never 100% flat - it vibrated at the atomic level so that its bonds would not spontaneously decay.
It was in order to measure the level of this displacement and vibration that physicist Paul Tibado recently led a group of graduate students and did a very simple study with them. Scientists laid sheets of graphene on a special copper net and observed changes in the positions of atoms with a microscope. However, the numbers for some reason did not correspond to the expected model. Moreover, the data varied from trial to trial.
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Graphene as an energy source
Thibado decided to take the experiment in a different direction, trying to find a suitable template and changing the way data was analyzed. Researchers have divided each image taken during the measurement into sub-images. The strategy turned out to be correct: the large-scale picture did not allow studying the laws of motion of atoms, but the analysis of its particulars as a result allowed to find out something interesting. It was assumed that the graphene sheets moved on the same principle as bent metal sheets - but this assumption turned out to be false.
It turned out that the whole point is in the so-called "Levy flights" - patterns of small random fluctuations combined with sudden, sharp shifts. Such systems were previously observed in biological and climatic systems, but physicists have seen them for the first time on an atomic scale. By measuring the speed and scale of these graphene waves, Thibado suggested that they could be used to extract energy from the environment.
As long as the temperature of the environment prevents the "comfortable" movement of graphene atoms relative to each other, they continue to pulsate and bend. Place electrodes on either side of a section of this graphene and you have a tiny generator. According to calculations, a 10x10 micron graph of graphene has a power of 10 microwatts. Considering that the head of a pin can fit as many as 20,000 of these squares, such a "powerhouse" doesn't look very impressive, right? However, this power at room temperature will be enough to provide energy to some small gadget - for example, a wristwatch. It is also interesting that in the future such a method of obtaining energy may lead to the creation of bioimplants, which will not need bulky batteries.
Conclusion
Chibado is currently collaborating with scientists at the US Naval Research Laboratory to see if this strategy has a future. Perhaps it is graphene that will become the source of "energy of the future", which will allow technologies to make a significant breakthrough in the near future.
Vasily Makarov