TPT July 2011

based composite material that they describe as being thin as paper and ten times stronger than steel. In work presented in the Journal of Applied Physics in April, a UTS research team supervised by Professor Guoxiu Wang reported reproducible test results and samples of a development with potential for revolutionising the automotive, aviation, electrical and optical industries. As reported on the Journal ’s website physorg.com, researchers at UTS succeeded in milling raw graphite (“the latest wonder material”). The chemically purified and filtered material is reshaped and reformed into nanostructured configurations and then processed into very thin sheets of graphene paper, or GP. These are stacked into laminar structures with exceptional thermal, electrical and mechanical properties. (“A Breakthrough on Paper That’s Stronger Than Steel,” 20 April) The UTS research team makes extraordinary claims for the prepared GP vis-à-vis steel: that it is six times lighter, twice as hard, with density five to six times lower, tensile strength ten times higher, and bending rigidity 13 times higher. As if that were not enough to commend it for commercial and engineering applications, lead researcher Ali Reza Ranjbartoreh said that GP is also recyclable, eco-friendly and cost-effective. The promise that GP holds for the automotive and aviation industries, in particular, is obvious. It would permit the development of lighter-weight and stronger cars and planes that use less fuel, generate less pollution, and are cheaper to run and ecologically sustainable. Mr Ranjbartoreh said that large aerospace companies have already started to replace metals with carbon fibres and carbon-based materials. Graphene paper with its nonpareil mechanical properties would be a logical next step. › The Australian provenance of graphene paper seems appropriate. Over the last decade, carbon-based materials have increasingly and rapidly been supplanting metals in Australia, and the country commands immense graphite mining resources. The developers of GP from graphite believe that the material promises “a remarkable amount of added value” for the Australian mining, materials processing, and manufacturing industries. Of related interest . . . › Australia’s minister for climate change, Greg Combet, has been seeking to reconcile steel and aluminium producers to the “carbon tax” planned by the government, on grounds that it would add very little to their costs. Up to a thousand large polluters among Australian companies would be required to buy a permit, for A$20, for every metric ton of emissions they generate. But Mr Combet on 13 April said that, when government assistance is taken into account, the tax would add only A$2.60 to the price of a metric ton of steel (currently around A$800); only A$18.70 to the price of a metric ton of aluminium (currently around A$2,500). Reuters reported the assertion by BlueScope, a steel maker and one of Australia’s top carbon emitters, that the carbon tax would cause the country’s manufacturers to shed thousands of jobs.

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