Concrete may have found it's killer app in graphene, a flat substance made of carbon atoms arranged in chicken wire patterns that looks like chicken wire with chicken wire. The substance is 50 times stronger than steel and conducts heat ten times faster than copper. It may be the material we have been waiting for to bridge electricity and heat. It will turn our world into one that is simultaneously cool and connected. In a world where our energy sources and infrastructure are aging and the need for efficient and durable solutions are at an all-time high, graphene has the potential to serve as the energy infrastructure for the future. Instead of being a pipe that sucks in electricity and pushes out heat and information, it will be a pipe that sucks in electricity and provides continuous, clean, and efficient means to produce both electricity and data. The possibilities are limitless.
For example, if companies began using graphene for power lines, they could transmit electricity along them wirelessly in an energy network like the internet, or on the surface of an even larger structure like a skyscraper, allowing a large area to draw electricity from one central location with minimal loss. Or cars could transmit electricity wirelessly as they drive around.
The promise of graphene could be to create an electronic device that harvests energy directly from the elements around it, like an internal power supply that will recharge electronics automatically. Or perhaps it could even be inserted into a cell phone to store and release enough electricity to provide a charge for an entire day. Or it could replace batteries in existing devices. The possibilities are nearly endless.
Now, it is not quite as simple as just turning on a switch and having electricity. For this to happen, a device using graphene must be paired with a small graphene fuel cell that generates electricity from the surrounding elements or another source of fuel. The technology for this is still being developed and is very complicated and somewhat expensive.
The benefits could be tremendous. By using this technology we could be moving away from the current power grid, which relies on a high-tech electronic system of wires and cables that deliver electricity to millions of homes and places of work. It's a system that requires massive amounts of steel, copper, and other materials to produce and power.
Graphene energy systems could be produced cheaply and in much smaller quantities, and require a smaller amount of workers to construct. By connecting graphene to the same cell phones and computers we have today, the entire grid would become smarter, more efficient, and much more environmentally friendly as well.
In an era where energy is literally our lifeblood, graphene could serve as a savior for our energy future. It has the potential to make our world a cleaner and more sustainable place to live. It could provide an alternative to the current expensive and environmentally damaging power grid and other ways to harness electricity. It is a technology that we can hope will propel the United States to the front of the pack in the global energy race. It is, as stated earlier, the game-changer.
It could even be described as the future of energy.
[This post originally appeared on Gizmodo]
Image: Shutterstock
Tess Koman reviews exciting new scientific discoveries and inventors at www.inventionsreview.com.
Email her at tess@inventionsreview.com
