TPT July 2011

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July 2011 85 ›
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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