[TheForge] plastic forge? OT:

[Jerry Frost]

I hit reply to your post Bruce then decided I aught to see what all the 
others said before hitting send. Reading thos thread has given me a much 
better idea of what the stuff is. Cool Beans.

No, I didn't know any more about graphene before this thread than reading a 
few paragraphs of the article provided. It sounds like exciting stuff, I 
don't even have a list of vague implications in mind yet.

Jer
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bruce Freeman" <freemab222 at gmail.com>
To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 2:26 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] plastic forge? OT:


> Frosty,
>
> I can't tell from this whether you NOW know what graphene is, so I'll
> tell you anyway.
>
> Despite my being a chemist, this is a layman's description, as this is
> NOT my field of chemistry.
>
> As you probably know, diamond is crystalline carbon, in which each
> atom is connected to four others in a tetrahedral configuration (i.e.,
> the OTHER four carbons are at the corners of a tetrahedron).  Very
> strong, very hard, no free electrons so completely transparent.
>
> By contrast, graphite is crystalline carbon, in which each atom is
> connected to only three others in a hexagonal array (i.e., honeycomb
> or chickenwire shape).  This is even stronger than diamond within the
> plane.  However, the myriad of layers of carbon are only held together
> by their electronic interaction and whatever stuff that attracts to
> between the planes.  There are LOTS of loose electrons floating
> around, so virtually any wavelength of visible light can be absorbed,
> rendering the stuff black.
>
> Now in  principal, one could separate those stacks of planes into
> shorter stacks of planes, and that's what people have been doing in
> making "graphene".  "Graphene" seems to mean a single plane of
> carbons, but work in t his direction also includes intermediate
> crystals consisting of a stack of relatively few planes of graphene.
> I believe some researchers have made single-planes graphene in some
> way or other.  Recently I read that someone had found a simple means
> of separating graphite into few-plane graphene "stacks" by merely
> putting it into a "solvent" of appropriate type.  The details escape
> me, but it makes perfect sense.
>
> IBM seems to be on top of the use of this stuff for electronic
> applications, and have recently made a "chip" on graphene-like
> substrate, IIRC.
>