All the matter in graphene bubbles. That are fraught with nanopure graphene

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Ekaterina Shutova

Все дело в графеновых пузырьках. Что таят в себе нанопузырьки графенаShutterstock

How much pressure can hold manousaki graphene, scientists initially prevented, and where it may be useful to the science Department “Газеты.Ru” said Catherine Rouslan — graduate student working in the team of Nobel laureate Andrey Geim.


 

— Ekaterina, thank you for agreeing to the interview. Colleagues of Andrey Geim came second in three weeks article about the new properties of graphene. My first question: can you tell me in simple terms for the layman about the results of the work published in Nature Communications, and the progress of the experiment?

 
 

Hello, thank you for showing interest in our work. Graphene is a very thin membrane only one atom thick but extremely durable. So durable that it can be hung over the hole in the substrate, this will make such a drum. Next on the reel you can push with a needle of a special instrument, the atomic force microscope is something like whipping a drum stick. And if you look how far it bounces off your drum sticks, you can determine whether stretched drum.

In this case, instead of the drum we pressed on manousaki, which are formed when the graphene transfer on an ideal atomically smooth surface of the crystal, for example, boron nitride or graphite.

 
 

 
 

This can be compared with the adhesion of the protective film on the glass of the car or the phone: if the film is big and thin, it is difficult to glue perfectly, you often have to be air bubbles. Using atomic force microscope, we found that such graphene bubbles stretched on a surprisingly strong.

The pressure inside them may exceed atmospheric thousands of times.

This means that if the inside of such a bubble to put pure oxygen, at room temperature it will become liquid.

Все дело в графеновых пузырьках. Что таят в себе нанопузырьки графенаmanchester.ac.uk

 

— Is it true that these bubbles graphene first, you prevented and nobody paid attention?

— Yes, it really is.

To study the electronic properties of graphene, we tried to obtain homogeneous samples, and the bubbles is a problem, as in the case of a protective film, they are difficult to get rid of.

However, if you think about it, why they appear, it can be understood that graphene is very well attached to the surface of the crystal, and where there is heterogeneity in the form of a bubble, graphene is exaggerated and therefore, it puts pressure on the contents of the vial, which in itself is interesting as the creation of high pressures in the laboratory is a separate complicated task.

— How and who decided to test their strength?

— Look at these bubbles was the idea of Andrew. Then our colleague, theorist and co-author of the article is made the first calculations that seemed easy to check experimentally. Because at that time I did a lot of “assembling” samples, the test instructed me.

 

 

 

— How much pressure can withstand bubbles graphene?

 
 

— As mentioned above, the pressure inside the bubbles can reach thousands of atmospheres —

this is comparable to the pressure at the bottom of the Mariana trench, for immersion in which the thickness of the steel walls of the submarine should be about 10 cm.

— And how important the results of your research to everyday life?

— I think first and foremost manousaki will find application in the laboratories. Starting with the fact that, as we have shown, they allow to measure the elastic modulus of two-dimensional materials under pressure. Ending with the generation of hydrogen as an alternative energy source. 95% of hydrogen today is produced by reaction of steam conversion of hydrocarbons, which flows under the pressure of tens of atmospheres, and one of the problems is the purification of hydrogen produced from the other reaction products. Manousaki able to perform both tasks: providing a high pressure isolation of the pure hydrogen because the atomic hydrogen easily passes through graphene and other two-dimensional materials, but don’t miss any other substances.

— Recently, graphene attracted the attention of all physicists in the world. Why, in your opinion, everything interesting is graphene? What makes it so special?

— I must say, not only physicists but also chemists and biologists. This is a truly unique material. The uniqueness is its simplicity, because it consists of atoms of only one element — carbon. Therefore, we can understand and accurately predict many of its properties. This is a very good platform to check many physical phenomena.

But it is worth noting that graphene has opened the way to study a huge set of two-dimensional materials, varied in their structure and properties, among them the insulator hexagonal boron nitride, the semiconductor molybdenum disulfide and diselenide superconductor niobium.

— Where graphene can be used? Still, maybe in medicine?

— Yes, the use of graphene in medicine is one of the most active areas of research. In particular, we study suspensions of nanoscale sheets of graphene with functional groups (e.g., drug molecules) on the surface. Due to the small thickness of graphene, these sheets can easily penetrate through the membranes of cells, specifically delivering medicines. Before the development of real medicines it is important to verify their possible toxicity, this is what makes many of our colleagues from the school of medicine here at the University of Manchester.

— How did you get in a team Game?

— While studying at MSU, I studied carbon materials in the laboratory of Professor Alexander Obraztsov, and after the graphene followed the course of studies of this material and it was very inspiring. Not nourishing any illusions, I wrote to Professor Irina Grigorieva, wife of Andrey Geim, which, to my surprise, replied that I have a good summary and that I have a chance to obtain one of the scholarships from the University of Manchester. After a year I worked for them.

— More interestingly: how would you describe the Game as a person. What is it and what’s it like working with him in the team?

 
 

It’s difficult for me to judge about Andrew, because my head is Irina (that’s what we all call each other by name, no middle name).

I can say one thing: he works hard, seven days a week, and he does have a vision of what scientific problems can be solved and will be of interest in the scientific community, and what a waste of time.

Irina I work much closer, she is an amazing person. Starting with the fact that she is very humble and considerate, she is a physicist with remarkable scientific instinct. The main result is a direct measurement of pressure in nanopure is exactly her idea. She always has a lot of interesting ideas, but it never makes if something doesn’t work out, she just does it herself. Sometimes I think she is able to cope with any challenge, I was very lucky with her as a leader.

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