| Introduction: Give a brief introduction to graphene. Body: What are its applications and challenges? Conclusion: Conclude with the progress made by India in this field |
Graphene is a two-dimensional material discovered in 2004 with many unique properties. Graphene Technology is an emerging technology which has the potential to be a game-changer in the coming decades. It is the world’s thinnest, strongest and most conductive material of both heat and electricity. It has the properties of being perfectly transparent and is impermeable to gases.
Why Graphene is so crucial for India?
- Wide range of applications: Graphene has a wide range of applications in fields like electricity, energy generation and sensors. it can be used in high-performance batteries, supercapacitors and touch screens.
- Health: Sensors based on graphene technology are used for health monitoring, environmental monitoring, and making wearable devices. Graphene also finds application in water purification and distillation.
- Electronics: Graphene-based transistors can enable communication in a terahertz frequency range which is useful in wireless communication and much faster than 4G, and 5G.
- Environment: Since it is extremely sensitive to the environment it is useful in detecting chemical, and biological pollutants, radiation, explosives and other hazardous substances.
- Defence & Aerospace: Graphene is used in the making of armour and ballistic protection vests due to its sheer strength. Due to its capacity to both absorb and dissipate electromagnetic waves, graphene is useful for creating stealth materials and coatings that lessen electromagnetic interference and radar signatures.
What are the challenges in producing high-grade large-scale graphene?
- International Competition: China, the USA, the UK, Korea, and Japan are leaders in research based on graphene technology. Brazil and China are global leaders in the production of graphene.
- Structure: The two-dimensional structure of graphene leads to contamination of graphene when it comes in contact with other materials which reduces the properties of graphene.
- Limited production: The scale of production of graphene-related products is very low in India. India produces about one-twentieth compared to China and one-third compared to Brazil. High-grade graphene has a high cost-to-volume ratio, therefore production may become centralised in a few places throughout the world.
- No flagship programs: India lacks the coherent structure and schemes which could aid in the production of graphene. India needs flagship missions related to graphene along the lines done in China and Europe.
Conclusion
India is a latecomer in graphene technology but it is still doing better than many nations with active support from pioneering institutes like Centre for Nano Science and Engineering at IISc. Institutes like IIT-Roorkee and IIT-Kanpur have done scientific research based on graphene-based ultracapacitors, and graphene-based nanotubes. Centre has been focussing on spurring large-scale innovation by setting up India Innovation Centre for Graphene in Kerala.
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