Does a Graphene Battery Really Exist?
Graphene was discovered in 2004, most of you have probably heard the story but for any of you that haven't it's worth sharing.
At the time scientists knew that the one atom thick two-dimensional crystal graphene existed.
But no one had worked out how to extract it from graphite two scientists andre gaia and konstantin novoselov would hold friday night experiments.
Where they would test new science not linked to their day jobs one friday.
They removed some flakes from a lump of bulk graphite while polishing it with scotch tape.
They noticed some flakes were thinner than others and so they continued to separate the graphite fragments repeatedly.
Which is how they ended up creating flakes that were just one atom thick.
They then dissolved the tape away resulting in graphene being isolated for the very first time.
Constantine and andre went on to win the 2010 nobel physics prize for their discovery.
As scientists have theorized about graphene for decades, and yes had any of us playfully put tape on our graphite pencils in elementary school we could have discovered graphene.
Graphene is an allotrope in the form of a single layer of atoms one atom thick arranged in a 2-dimensional hexagonal lattice.
An allotrope is just a structural modification of an element with the atoms bonded together differently.
In this case the arrangement of atoms was modified from three dimensions to two.
Graphene is composed of carbon atoms in which each atom forms of vertex just a single layer of atoms is perfectly visible to the naked eye.
It has a unique property of expanding when cooled and shrinking.
When warm graphene is literally one of the most mind-boggling discoveries known to man.
It is the thinnest material ever discovered while also being the strongest material ever tested.
And it can stretch up to 25% of its length it's 200 times stronger than steel and 40 times stronger than diamonds.
While being one atom thick it's bulletproof when folded to two atoms.
It's the most efficient conductor known to man it could hold energy densities six times higher than copper.
It has the best thermal conductivity and is the most imperiled ever discovered.
While being bendable and very flexible, it's lightweight and can be added to almost any cell without affecting the cell attributes.
This means we may see a world with graphene enhanced batteries.
First I've simply adding one layer could result in significant performance enhancements.
Graphene could cover both the cathode and the anode resulting in charge times five times faster than currently.
Possible graphene suppresses damaging reactions from continuous charging.
Normal batteries would degrade quickly at these quick charging speeds as lithium doesn't like a lot of energy in or out.
Clearly the hype around graphene is warranted, it has truly mind-blowing potential in the battery world.
Even more use cases in a shocking number of other industries it's quite possibly the most amazing material known to man.
All this being said it's been joked about the graphene can do everything.
But leave the lab so where are we today, there are many companies falsely advertising graphine products.
They're actually using graphite the 3d cousin without the main benefits of graphene.
However there are true graphene enhanced products on the market.
Before mentioning them that should be noted that the industry is very convoluted with marketing fluff and hyperbole.
As there are literally billions of dollars at stake for the first companies to commercialize this incredible material.
Graphene can revolutionize a shocking number of industries rust-free ships and cars, computers, phones, and foldable screens, aircrafts, aviation, sporting equipment like tennis racquets and skis night-vision, contacts, clean, drinking water, and many more currently you can check at website h ttps://www.jbbatterychina.com .
Graphene enhanced wireless headphones applied graphene materials supplied graphene for use in fishing rods and colmar.
A high-end sportswear company sells ski jackets with graphene to enable the body and the environment ensuring ideal temperatures.
This only scratches the surface of graphene enhanced products.
But let's get back to the battery world and tusla there are a handful of startup companies.
Claiming to have created power banks enhanced with graphene apollo traveler.
Real graphene charge asap and ultron to name a few one of the main issues that has held.
Graphene products back then has been very high costs since one sheet of graphene one millimetre thick or 1/32 of an inch.
Requires three million layers of atoms graphene has been cost prohibitive to produce in large amounts.
In 2013 it was reported that one micrometer of graphene which is 1,000 times smaller than 1 millimeter cost a thousand dollars making graphene one of the most expensive materials on earth.
Scientists have been on a frantic search for the holy grail of a scalable production process ever since and they've made significant strides.
It's been reported that in the last three years the cost of graphene is down to 10 cents per gram in some cases.
So now the billion dollar question what does this mean for Tesla.
For starters we need to talk about the indiegogo campaign hosted by charge asap.
That is raising money for their power bank called flash, it makes them bold and super exciting claims.
But the most interesting and controversial is that this power bank is powered by Tesla graphene batteries.
They claim to be using four of the 2170 Tesla lithium polymer graphene composite battery cells.
Which have been specially designed in partnership with panasonic who has been making the cells.
Which they claim are the highest energy density batteries in the world.
But here's a potential glaring red flag among others.
Not only is this an incredibly generic statement, but we have not heard anything from Tesla about a 2170 graphene composite cell already being used in their cars.
Speaking of red flags the company charged asap is reportedly headquartered in los angeles.
But when you go to their indiegogo business page it says they are in sydney australia.
They set a fixed goal of $5,000 which is wildly small for a technology like this.
If it were real and they have apparently raised $663,000 for a project that's only in the prototype stage.
There were numerous errors throughout the sales funnel paired with vague wording which can often scream scam alert.
The question needs to be asked would we really see a seismic shift in battery tech from an indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.
With no mention of this from Tesla or panasonic.
If you're not familiar with indiegogo this could just as easily be a front for a money laundering scheme.
However they have delivered on five of their seven total crowdfunding projects.
What value you choose to give that I'll leave up to you.
Of course I would love nothing more than for Tesla and panasonic to be working together.
To be producing and testing graphene composite batteries.
While I can't argue that it's likely, that this is what they're doing.
It's certainly possible you never know who knows who at these companies.
And it would in theory be a good way for Tesla to dabble with graphene in the real world.
Begin testing the reliability performance enhancements and cost efficiencies that could be available before then implementing on a larger<