Making graphene with soybeans
A team of scientists at CSIRO claim to have made graphene more commercially viable using soybean oil. The new ‘GraphAir’ technology eliminates the need for a highly-controlled environment by growing graphene film in air with a natural precursor, making its production faster and simpler.
GraphAir transforms soybean oil into graphene films in a single step. With heat, soybean oil breaks down into a range of carbon building units that are essential for the synthesis of graphene. The team also transformed other types of renewable and even waste oil, such as those leftover from barbecues or cooking, into graphene films.
‘We can now recycle waste oils that would have otherwise been discarded and transform them into something useful,’ said CSIRO scientist Dr Dong Han Seo.
The potential applications of this technology include water filtration and purification, renewable energy, sensors, as well as, personalised healthcare and medicine.