New plasma-based technology design increases graphene production by more than 22%
Harder than diamond, stronger than steel, flexible like rubber, and lighter than aluminum. These are just some of the properties attributed to graphene. Although this material has attracted great interest in the scientific community in recent years, there is still no sufficient cheap and sustainable method for manufacturing it to high quality on an industrial scale.
A research team from the University of Córdoba (UCO) has published in the Journal of Chemical Engineering a new prototype that may accurately represent a major step towards large-scale production of this material, which was first synthesized in 2004. Six years later, he won the Nobel Prize.
This new technical design, which has already been registered as a patent and builds on the team’s own previous patents, increases graphene production by more than 22%, while the process maintains the high quality that is characteristic of synthetic graphene. will be done. This technology.
The research is based on plasma technology, a partially ionized gas often referred to as the fourth state of matter. There are natural plasmas such as lightning and auroras, but they can also be produced artificially in the laboratory.
Francisco Javier Morales, lead author of the study, emphasized that one of its major advantages is that it is “a high-energy medium that can break down organic molecules very easily.” Specifically, the team used this plasma torch to split ethanol and rearrange the molecule’s carbon atoms, resulting in graphene.
Faraday cage to optimize energy
The graphene synthesis process is already protected by a patent from the group, but the new innovation of this research is that graphene production has been significantly increased thanks to energy optimization of the process.
As the team’s lead researcher, Rocio Rincon, explained, previous research by the group showed that almost 43% of the energy supplied was lost and wasted. This is a clear example of how one discovery can lead to another, and how applied research can build on the foundations of basic research, as is often the case in science.
To avoid precisely this loss of valuable energy, the research team built a Faraday cage around the plasma. A Faraday cage is a metal mesh that acts as an electromagnetic shield, similar to that used in microwaves to isolate the system from the outside world. Thus, according to the research results, while previously 4.3 milligrams of graphene was produced per watt per minute, this new shield, which makes full use of plasma energy, produces 5.2 milligrams per watt per minute. will be generated. force.
The research was carried out by the Plasma Innovation Research Institute research group at the University of Córdoba, in collaboration with the Institute of Energy and Environmental Chemistry (IQUEMA), which was responsible for part of the quality assessment of the produced graphene.
Further information: FJ Morales-Calero et al., Increasing the yield of high-quality graphene nanosheet powders: The impact of reaction chamber electromagnetic shielding on the TIAGO torch plasma approach, Chemical Engineering Journal (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2024.155088
Provided by University of Cordoba
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