Paper ... stiffer than steel

Light, thin but tough and tough, these are the preeminent features of the material that have been successfully fabricated by scientists at the University of Technology in Sydney.

In the form of an ultra-thin sheet of paper, the material is made up of graphene (a honeycomb flatbed material composed of carbon atoms, about the thickness of an atomic equivalent). Transparent, strong, and electrically conductive.) So far, the scientific community has not found any material that is thinner than graphene. (The structure of graphite is caused by the overlapping graphene.)

The material was coined by two Russian physicists, Andrei Konstantinovich Geim and Konstantin Sergeevich Novoselov, who in 2004 (this was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in physics). Considered to be a promising material in the future, only Australian scientists have made significant progress using a completely new technique to create 'graphene' paper.

Graphene paper.

Scientists crushed coarse graphite to a microscopic level to obtain carbon crystals, then filtered and cleaned with chemicals and melted back into microscopic form. Graphene 'paper' is made up of nanostructures of carbon crystals.

According to results published in the Journal of Applied Physics , experiments have yielded promising results. Compared to steel, graphene paper is 6 times lighter, 5 to 6 times thinner, twice as hard, 10 times more elastic and 13 times stronger than folding.

In addition to these superior properties, the material is a ' very durable, recyclable and environmentally friendly product ,' the Australian scientist said.

With these superior properties, graphene paper opens up promising prospects for future aircraft and automobile industries, which are always looking for lighter materials at a lower cost. .