Saw this is today's The Independent. Very bullish on uses of Graphene. No mention of Silver but its potential could render Silver obsolete in Industrial usage? http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...orld-by-playing-with-sticky-tape-8539743.html
They won the NOBLE PRIZE for playing with scotch tape buahahaha, my niece is coming on up her first bday, let's see if we can get her a nobel prize in legos. But seriously, thermal and electrical conductivity > AG = "I shoulda bought more gold instead!!!!"? It would be very cool if they can make solar panels cost effective though and having a computer on my tshirt would rock.
Quote: Graphene, a two-dimensional crystal of pure carbon, is a superlative material. It is the thinnest and strongest substance known to science about 100 times stronger than steel by weight. A square metre of graphene, a thousand times thinner than paper, made into a hammock would be strong enough to cradle a 4kg cat, but weigh no more than one of its whiskers. It is a good conductor of electricity, is stretchable and yet is almost transparent. It conducts heat better than any other known substance. It acts as a barrier to the smallest atom of gas helium and yet allows water vapour to pass through.
Behind oil, silver has the most industrial uses ahead of any other commodity. I doubt Graphene could make a significant dent in applications for silver.
It costs about $10k to make 0.1 ounce of graphene so it's obviously quite cost inhibitive at the moment but still early days. Researchers received a 1bn grant for R&D so they must have some faith in it. If it does come to compete with silver, silver still has its role as a monetary metal and a store of wealth. Gold seems to be doing just fine on these aspects.
Graphene sounds promising. I'm presently looking for a 4kg cat (that won't gain weight and thereby screw up the test) to test it with... When PAMP Suisse starts selling 1oz bars of graphene in serial-numbered assay cards, I'll seriously consider it.
In other graphite-related news, earlier this year Rice University made carbon nanotubes of useful length for the first time in history: http://news.rice.edu/2013/01/10/new-nanotech-fiber-robust-handling-shocking-performance-2/ Average tensile strength of a gigapascal. Less dense than aluminium. And if you can make a thread of 500m, then there's no fundamental reason why you can't make it 100,000,000m. And then we'll really be going... TO DA MOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!1!!11!
I think there must be massive amounts of research going into graphene as a alternative to the worlds only other room temperature semi conductor, silver. I think graphene is something to seriously keep an eye on. It only seems to be going from strength to strength. I doubt it will ever threaten silvers luxury appeal, but could easily shake things up in it's industrial applications. I guess the tech companies are all a little worried how they will survive in a peak silver world and alternatives must be sought. Perhaps I should look into hedging my silver holdings with shares in a graphene technology company.
Graphene will have NO effect on Silver for a VERY long time. A spider's web is a trillion times stronger than graphene...blah, blah blah. Silver has WAY to many uses in industry, and it's VERY cheap.
One could argue that silver's days are going to be darkened when graphene is properly developed. On the other hand, for those stackers who haven't noticed by now, by-and-large, silver's directional price movement shadows gold's price movement with minor variation but often with greater volatility. In other words, silver's value is not impressive without gold to drag it up and down. That actually will be silver's savior the day graphene becomes inexpensive to produce. Silver is anything but an indispensable commodity. You stack silver and you like when silver moves high? Then you better hope that investor demand for gold is continually increased.
Dynoman said: I thought hydrogen was the smallest atom. Dunno, it's science, someone smart fact check please.
That sounds amazing, but I wonder if there are some practicalities that need to be resolves. Like, it would be the sharpest thing in the universe. If you dropped a sheet of it on edge, would it just slice through everything in front of it? I imagine a few ninja star throwing things made of graphine would be lethal. What would stop one that was thrown?
