Graphene

[Kbop]

So earlier this month...
<MEGO warning for non-technonerds>

I found that something i've been reading about is making its way out of the lab.
graphene is becoming a purchasable material.  Its now available for sale. about 150USD for 50mL, enough to make several items - i'm sure the price will start coming down as production kinks are worked out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene_antenna
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/129/1/012004/pdf

so for technonerds, this is way cool. 
Why should others care?
some ideas I've read about;

• very low impedance, very high freq ability (into THz)
• printable antenna - pick a spot and just paint the appropriate pattern, attach to a cable
• printable antenna - print onto a piece of paper and place where needed
• printable antenna - laminate multiple antennas onto a car - no more wind drag or RF blind spots
• printable electronic circuitry - circuit boards cheaply printed and would not need to be flat
• cheap car radar
• wearable contacts with better than normal vision
• glasses/goggles that allow you to see in multiple wavelengths - even RF/optical
• printable electronic circuitry - a bendy Iphone anyone
• a single antenna for multiple freqs - like the fractal cellular antennas only better
• excellent power conductor
• water based ink
• last but not least - it can be layered into stable 3D structures - takes advantage of several unique physical properties - for the electronically minded, start with multi amp hour capacitor (wafer thin battery that will recharge in seconds)

this might do for electronics engineering what tinker toys & legos did for mechanical engineering.  combine this tech with carbon fiber structural members and we might see the 'carbon age' starting in a generation.  As the prices come down, garage tinkerers will start using all this new tech with computer widgetry in unique ways.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=graphene

Ok, i'm stopping here, but i think this is way cool.

[Kbop]

   i got carried away and forgot.

I was working with a spiral graphene antenna.  tested it with a network analyzer and IRL.
the frequency response was from 30MHz to 3Ghz - this limitation was my receiver/analyzer, not the paper antenna.  the ISO-gain was around +7dB... across the entire scale.  We'll get a polar map when we can free up some time in the anechoic chamber - that many bands may be a weekend project all tests were RX only.  TX will come later.  We already know that a Cu wire antenna the same shape has internal interference and impedance problems causing the gain to be very prone to flex and deformation losses.  This was not seen on the printed version unless we nearly folded the antenna back on itself.

in laymen's terms this means the 8 1/2 X 11 piece of paper with the inked antenna (printed by hand using a syringe of ink over a printed template) was better than a typical car 2M & triple band Cellular & discone antennas i compared it too. (typical gain for the magmounted type car antenna ranges from +0dB to +3dB at tuned frequencies.)  Fun note - the IRL commercial FM band started my receiver clipping the signal   very nice. 

[JohnyMac]

Cool beans Kbop! 

[ThePreppingAcademy]

I was looking in to graphene several months back. I'm curious how much one would need to develop some body armor 

[Kbop]

I was looking in to graphene several months back. I'm curious how much one would need to develop some body armor 

good point! i was only looking at the electrical characteristics.