Concrete may have found it's killer app in graphene. The material is as versatile as it is promising. An ultra thin layer of graphene may be the magic ingredient to make concrete super-strong, impervious to bacteria, mold, fungus and rot. Researchers from Rice University, Baylor University, the University of Waterloo and the University of Calgary tested a new kind of concrete in which the base material is graphene oxide. After seven days, the researchers found that the concrete absorbed between 10-15% more water than plain concrete in the same conditions. The water-absorbent concrete's "wet strengths," measures of how much it can be squeezed or how deeply water can be soaked in, was up to three times better than concrete without the graphene. A team of researchers from Rice University and Baylor University. The graphene was added to the concrete mixture. Rice University To make the concrete, the researchers added 20 grams of graphene flakes to 50 kilograms of concrete made up of sand, gravel, and cement with a small amount of water. The mixture was then added to a cement mixer and mixed until all the materials were completely absorbed by the water. The graphene flakes in the concrete expand when soaked in water, which creates a kind of capillary action that allows for large amounts of water to be held in concrete—the water is held in so well, in fact, that engineers believe the material could be used to build underwater concrete structures. While graphene oxide makes this concrete super-strong, it also allows mold, fungus, and other microorganisms to grow. This new kind of concrete would require less material and much less carbon to create, because it could absorb more than 25 percent more water than regular concrete without having to worry about the material's chemical structure absorbing too much water, which would reduce the concrete's strength. The researchers argue that the super-strong concrete would also be safer and faster to create, because there's no risk of chemical reactions that could compromise its chemical composition. Right now, the most common use for graphene is as a conductive material for creating flexible and durable electrodes, but this concrete may be the best way to unleash the material's potential. Not only could a stronger, safer, and more efficient concrete be developed, but if the graphene flakes can be replaced, the concrete itself could act as a building block for the construction of entire structures, not just small chips or tablets. "We're already talking to people about trying to make other forms of concrete that could be useful as well," says team member Dr. Xudong Wang, an associate professor of chemical engineering at Rice. The team will be testing their material soon, this time with microbeads, but Wang says that he hopes to soon begin testing the concrete with small organisms. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io