Innovative Building Materials Shaping the Future of Architecture




 4. More (and Better) Graphene

A faster way to mass-produce graphene—the ultrathin and super strong nanomaterial discovered at the University of Manchester in the U.K. in 2004—and at a higher quality than was previously possible. Their batch-processing method allows for the growth of smoother and stronger graphene sheets than do conventional thermal processes while cutting production time from hours to minutes and increasing sample sizes from millimeters to—soon—inches. The process doesn’t require the development of new processing equipment or infrastructure, says David Boyd, a Caltech staff scientist and first author of the related paper published in the journal Nature Communications. “It’s process-compatible,” he says. Still, the most likely applications for graphene in architecture are in small-scale products such as coatings, solar cells, and electronics.

                                        

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