By Meghan Bialt-DeCelie ’19

Graphene, a material made of a two-dimensional sheet of carbon, is effective in durability and the conductivity of electricity. However, it has had trouble being commercialized. In a process called grapheme doping, chemicals were introduced to improve the electron density of grapheme and it eventually made the material more vulnerable do degradation.

In collaboration with researchers from Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium (USPVMC), and SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Physicist Matthew Eisaman, along with other researchers from Stony Brook University, developed an inexpensive yet effective process of making high-performing graphene without degradation.  The researchers used a common soda-lime glass, previously used in the energy, electronics, and semiconductors industries, as a substrate to layer the graphene. The sodium atoms of the glass improved its electron density of graphene, optimizing it for electronic devices without the introduction of external chemicals.  By developing a more stable method of graphene optimization, this renovated conductive material can easily make its way to commercialized products.

References:

1. Eure, Graphene leans on glass to advance electronics. Brookhaven Newsroom (2016).
2. Image Acquired from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Graphene.svg
3. Using glass to improve graphene’s powerful conductivity. Stony Brook Newsroom (2016).