Graphene may result in bendable phones
Print Edition
BENDABLE mobile phones, quick-charge batteries and unbreakable touch screens — technology firms are racing to harness the potential of graphene, a wonder material which scientists say could transform consumer electronics.
A fine sheet of pure carbon, graphene is as thin as an atom, making it the skinniest material known.
At the same time though, it is 100 times stronger than steel, hugely pliable and can conduct electricity and heat better than anything else.
“There are other materials which do have one of those properties each,” physicist Kostya Novoselov — who first isolated graphene in 2004 — said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
“What is amazing here is that all those qualities are combined in one simple crystal. “Of course that immediately leaves us with a number of possible applications.”
Novoselov, a Russian-born British citizen, and his colleague at Manchester University Andre Geim won the Nobel Prize for their work with graphene, sparking a flurry of interest in the new material.
The number of patents involving graphene soared from under 50 in 2004 to around 9,000 in 2014, according to Andrew Garland of research firm Future Markets, who puts out a twice-yearly report on the material.
“Most are in electronics,” he said.
Samsung, the world’s number one smartphone maker, has taken out the most graphene patents — over 490 — followed by China’s Ocean’s King Lighting and IBM.
While its real-world uses so far remain modest, research into possible applications for the material picked up steam in Europe after the European Union set aside 1 billion euros (US$1.1 billion) in 2013 to be spent over 10 years to investigate.
“We believe we require another 10 years to get to the point where a lot of devices will start being on the market,” said Andrea Ferrari, director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre at the University of Cambridge.
The Barcelona fair for the first time had a pavilion dedicated to graphene research centers and start-ups, a sign of the growing importance of the material to the mobile industry.
Graphene is so pliable scientists predict it will one day make flexible phones possible.
British firm FlexEnable showcased a smartwatch prototype made using graphene that wraps around a user’s wrist and features a full color LCD display that is capable of running video content.
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