The reporter learned from the recent academician Salon of Graphene Today and Tomorrow sponsored by the Academic Consulting and Academic Activity Center of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in Shanghai that the preparation technology of the upstream graphene has been able to meet the needs of many current and clear applications, as long as the intermediate link is opened. Graphene goes into life just around the corner. If a hammock made of graphene with an area of ​​1 square meter weighs less than 1 milligram, it can carry a 1 kilogram cat - since the two scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics for graphene research in 2010. This magical material is famous. The reporter learned from the recent academician Salon of Graphene Today and Tomorrow sponsored by the Academic Consulting and Academic Activity Center of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in Shanghai that the preparation technology of the upstream graphene has been able to meet the needs of many current and clear applications, as long as the intermediate link is opened. Graphene goes into life just around the corner. The basic research of graphene in Shanghai goes hand in hand with the world Graphene is composed of carbon atoms and has a fracture strength 200 times that of the best steel at present. The tensile strength can reach 20% of its own size, and 1 millimeter of thickness can contain about 3 million layers of graphene. Ren Zhengfei, the president of Huawei, once said: "The greatest subversion in this era will be the era of graphene era that subverts silicon." Yang Junhe, dean of the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, revealed that more than 80 countries have invested in the research, development, and industrialization of graphene. Developed countries such as the US, UK, Japan, and South Korea have adopted graphene as a national strategy. The first patent for graphene appeared in 1994. Since its discoverer won the Nobel Prize in 2010, the number of global patent applications has exploded. As of 2016, the number of global graphene patent applications has reached 9022. Among them, 58% are from China. According to statistics, Shanghai has 1600 patents around graphene, covering almost all the current research directions of graphene in the world. The initial extraction of graphene was “tacky†from the graphite of the pencil lead with tape, so that the original hand-made method could not adapt to industrial production, so how to obtain thin and pure graphene has been plagued by the industry. At present, Shanghai has made progress in the two major preparation technologies of graphene—liquid phase exfoliation method and redox method, which can meet the needs of the current application level. Downstream companies have already been eager to use this kind of two-dimensional crystal with only one layer of atomic thickness, such as replacing the silicon material, becoming a component of the next-generation supercomputer, or using its transparency to display on a large scale on solar panels. Applications can also be used in many fields such as biology, health, and environmental protection. Crossing the "gap" from sample to product Since there is a source and there are demands, why hasn't seen large-scale application of graphene? Yang Junhe said: "Because there is a gap between the sample and the product." Scientists only need to find a sample with excellent performance in thousands of tests, while the industry seeks to meet the standards of each product. As the first planned 18 research and development and transformation functional platforms of Kechuang Center, Shanghai's graphene industry technical functional platform established one year ago is precisely to open up the “last mile†of graphene from the sample to the product. Yang Junhe's graphene anti-corrosion coating was one of the first three pilot lines to enter the platform, where his products had to run tests from grams to tons. "The first problem to be solved is the problem of uniform dispersion of graphene," said Meng Yan, chairman of Shanghai's graphene industry technology functional platform. The problems that can be solved by the almost one stirring bar in the laboratory, when scaled up to the kilogram or even ton scale, become complex issues requiring the fusion of temperature, pressure, ultrasound and a series of process technologies. Researchers must constantly explore the "temper" of chemical materials in each state, and must also match the appropriate equipment in order to evenly disperse the graphene in the substrate. Not long ago, all three pilot lines were successful. Next, funded by Shanghai Huayi Group, Yang Junhe's team of 100 tons of graphene anticorrosive materials will start construction in the second half of the year and will be put into operation next year, with an estimated capacity of 35,000 tons. After it is put into production, it will greatly satisfy the product gap of China's anti-corrosion coating industry from being upgraded from oily to water-based, and has a broad application prospect. Common Technologies Accelerate Shanghai Graphene Industry Professor Konstantin Novoselov, a professor of the University of Manchester, who was honoured to be the father of graphene, said in Shanghai last year that in only six years, the United Kingdom had touched the edge of industrialization from the most basic original achievements. . At the moment, the global study of graphene is on the same starting line. Who can become the source of new products for graphene? Speed ​​is the competition. Through a one-year pilot test, Shanghai's graphene industry technology and functional platforms have accumulated rich experience and are planning to upgrade. Based on the original pilot production line, this year, new innovative laboratories and inspection and testing centers have been added. These are common characteristics. The new department set up by R&D will win time for every product that comes to the platform. “In the past, we established pilot lines for individual samples. As more and more samples are taken, common technologies need to be extracted for them,†said Meng Yan.
