Researcher develops a new generation of graphene

The material graphene has many incredible properties, but to date it has been difficult to use on a large scale in industry, because it loses its unique properties and goes back to its origin graphite. Researcher Mamoun Taher has developed a new form of graphene that can solve the problem.

"The challenge has been to scale up graphene's outstanding properties from nanoscale at laboratories to macro-scale atindustry without degradation," says Mamoun Taher. He is a researcher at the Department of Chemistry at Uppsala University and CEO of start-up company Graphmatech.

Graphene is one atom thick two-dimensional carbon material. It is flexible, 200 times stronger than steel, and has many other advantageous properties. The problem is that when it is produced on a large scale, the thin flakes havetendency to re-stick. As a result, the material loses its wonder properties and becomes more like graphite.

The new material, Aros Graphene, has been designed to prevent this by incorporating designed molecules,so called "separators".

"The separators are designed to separate graphene flakes without degrading their properties, so we have control over the material. The process has been designed to be environmentallyaccepted, we use water as a solvent and no hazardous chemicals."