As you may have noticed, we’ve got a bit of a nerd crush on a very special carbon allotrope, graphene. It’s flexible and strong and it generates current at room temperature in sunlight and it’s just so dreamy. The problem is, you can’t stack sheets of it: it loses its surface area. Oh, graphene, why do you have to so cruelly tease?
Fortunately, Northwestern University is on the stick: put graphene sheets in water droplets, blow the water droplets through a furnance and you’ve got…crumpled-up graphene sheets.
What’s the big deal? These can be stacked without losing their surface area, meaning graphene’s properties can be more effectively scaled up. It’s also a stable structure; the harder you press down on them, the harder the crumples become.
In short, graphene just became even more useful than it already is. Thanks, science!
[ via the crumplers at Gizmag ]