As one of the most promising matieral, what can graphene be used for?
1.1 Graphene battery
It can be used as a conductive additive of graphene composite anode and cathode materials and anode and cathode materials of lithium batteries to improve the performance of lithium ion batteries in an all-round way. At the same time, the special structure of graphene with high specific surface area and its excellent electron transport ability can effectively improve the conductivity of anode materials and improve the diffusion and transport ability of lithium ions.
1.2 Smart wear
Due to its advantages of light weight, high electrical conductivity, high thermal conductivity and high strength, graphene is a goodt thermal conductivity materials. Graphene electric heating is not only fast in heating speed, but also high in electric-thermal radiation conversion efficiency. Moreover, graphene heating film is heated on the whole surface with uniform temperature distribution. The most important is, can produce far infrared radiation, have effect of good medical treatment, physiotherapy.
In 2017, the market of graphene in the smart wear is 500 million CNY. Some enterprises have launched graphene neck and waist protection, heating clothes, eye patches and other products and sold them on the market. At the 2018 winter Olympics in pyeongchang, 72 actors wore smart graphene fever costumes. It can be heated to 50℃ at -20℃ and lasts for 4 hours.
1.3 Electronic components(interface thermal conductivity material, graphene antenna RFID)
With the fast development of electronic industry technology, modern electronic appliances require smaller size and higher energy density. With the rapid increase of the working frequency of electronic products, the heat generated by electronic equipment will accumulate and increase rapidly. If the heat cannot be transferred out in time, the working temperature of electronic components will rise sharply. This will not only affect the normal working efficiency of the equipment, but also greatly shorten its service life, so it is urgent to develop interface thermal conductivity materials with high thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity of single-layer graphene can be as high as 5300W/mK. When the number of layers increases to 2-4, the thermal conductivity decreases to 2800W/ mk-1300w /mK, but it is still much higher than the thermal conductivity of copper (398 W/mK), which is the material with the best thermal conductivity. Therefore, graphene can be an ideal thermal conductivity material for electronic components.
Graphene will be the best material of printing electronic technology in the application of RFID after silver paste antenna. At present, aluminum etching antenna manufacturing process includes metal bonding, photoresist printing, metal etching,etc., which has complicated process, high cost and not environment protection. If by graphene, it’s environment friendly, cheap and light in quality, good for printing of various wireless antennas. It is highly competitive in market.
1.4 environmental protection and energy saving
Graphene has a hug specific surface area and excellent electrical conductivity, which make it good at sea water desalination, sewage treatment, atmospheric treatment, electricity replacement,LED heat dissipation, home heating.
1.5 Biomedicine
graphene may become an alternative material for photothermal treatment of cancer.
Graphene is a composite material synthesized with polysaccharides, which is highly compatible with cells and can be used as a scaffold for cell growth. The surface of graphene derivatives contains a large number of oxygen-containing groups, with a large specific surface area, which can promote the adhesion, proliferation and differentiation of stem cells. Through further structural functional modification, graphene derivatives can be used in the field of bone tissue engineering. Graphene-based biosensors can be used to determine glucose content in serum samples, bacterial analysis, DNA and protein detection, etc. Functionalized graphene can also be used as a carrier to deliver drugs to target cells, improving the efficacy and efficiency of treatment. Compared with carbon nanotubes, graphene has larger surface area, less toxicity, lower price, and better photothermal treatment effect.
1.6 Graphene lubricating oil, graphene coating
Graphene is good at anti corrosion coatings, lubricating oil, grease.
Graphene has two dimensional layered structure and a large specific surface area, as well as barriers to water, oxygen and chlorine ions, etc., So it’s good for anti corrosive coatings.
1.7 Aerospace (absorbing material, anti-interference antenna)
Aerospace industry require new composite material having better performance.Graphene is high strength, high thermal conductivity, resistance to electromagnetic interference, which can be used in the aerospace materials, improve aviation material performance. At present, the applications of graphene in the aerospace field mainly include absorbing materials for large microwave anechoic chamber, stealth materials for aircraft and weapon platforms, lightweight composite materials, antiradar jamming cables, aerospace thermal management system, aircraft tires, radar electromagnetic shielding and other fields.