(276h) Expanding the Application Space of Graphene-Based Materials

Graphene – a 2D arrangement of C-atoms is touted as a wonder material that can transform technologies in the electronics and energy-storage industry. However, some of its attributes such as the inherent high surface area and the conformal nature of these ultra-thin films can realize applications in sectors such as water purification and protection of corrosion of metallic components. In this talk, I will discuss our experiences in transforming ‘sand’ – a main-stay filter material to ‘super-sand’ - graphene-oxide coated sand which improves filtration efficiencies by five to six times compared to ‘sand’ filtration. This new material may enable cost-efficient water purification systems for developing economies, given the combined benefits of activated-carbon and sand filtration in this novel composite filtration medium processed through soft-chemistry principles [1]. Further, I will elaborate on our recent observations of improvement in corrosion-resistance by one and half orders of magnitude from conformal ultra-thin films of graphene over Cu-substrates formed by Chemical Vapor Deposition [2]. In summary, it is hoped that enabling technologies such as these may help ‘graphene-research’ bridge the esoteric world of academia and urgent humanitarian problems.

References:

1. Wei Gao, Mainak Majumder*, Lawrence B. Alemany, Tharangattu N. Narayanan, Miguel A. Ibarra, Bhabendra K. Pradhan , and Pulickel M. Ajayan*ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2011, 3 (6), pp 1821–1826
2. R.K. Singh Raman, P. Chakraborty, Banerje, Derrek E. Lobo, Hemtej Gullapalli, Madusha Sumandasa, Ashwin Kumar, Lokesh Choudhary, Rachel Tkacz, Pulickel M. Ajayan, Mainak Majumder* “Protecting Copper from Electrochemical Degradation by Graphene Coating”, Carbon, just accepted, (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2012.04.048)