With Graphene, a Smart Snap Bracelet?

With Graphene, a Smart Snap Bracelet?

This wild vision of a morphing, versatile, snap-bracelet-slash-tablet-slash-all-purpose-smart-thing is made possible–or at least thinkable–by the graphene, a so-called “wonder material” discovered in 2004.

The European Commission today announced one billion Euros in funding for research into applications of graphene. Over 100 research groups will receive funding in an initiative led by Jari Kinaret, applied physicist and apparent fencing enthusiast.

What’s graphene? For a crash course in the material, look no further than TR’s own pages. Graphene is pretty simple to comprehend: it’s an atom-thick sheet of carbon, arrayed like a honeycomb. Graphene is seen as a potential replacement for silicon, since it conducts electrons even faster. Recent years have seen researchers employing various types of chemical wizardry to improve processes of creating bulk graphene (see “From the Labs: Materials”). Graphene holds immense promise, with an array of strange, wondrous features and applications–it could make more sensitive sensors and ultrafast switches; it could be the material underlying novel battery tech; it’s apparently self-healing; researching it will win you the Nobel prize. (You can imagine the marketing slogans: Women want it; men want to be it; it’s fun for the whole family; things will never be the same!) Even the European Commission’s calling it a “wonder material.”