Chongqing Channel News Do you want to use a mobile phone that can be bent and folded back and forth on the screen? If graphene is used, it may become a reality. With the folding screen, even though the phone screen has become larger, it is still very convenient to carry. On January 22, the Chongqing Green and Intelligent Technology Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Chongqing Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) revealed that it had successfully prepared the first 15 inch graphene monolayer in China, which reached the highest level in China in such a large size. It may bring a revolution to our mobile phones, computers and other electronic products.

The thinnest nanomaterial in the world has good light transmission and can be folded

It is reported that graphene is a single atomic layer plane film composed of carbon atoms, which can be used as a material for preparing transparent electrodes, the core part of a new type of touch screen.

Compared with the existing mobile phone touch screen materials, graphene has more advantages and is considered to be the thinnest, almost completely transparent and the strongest material in the world.

How thin is it? Shi Haofei, deputy director of the Research Center for Micro nano Manufacturing and System Integration of the Chongqing Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, explained that graphene is only 0.34 nanometers thick. Roughly estimated, the diameter of a hair is about equal to the thickness of 100000 layers of graphene, so it can't be seen with the naked eye. It only absorbs about 2.3% of the light, and can almost completely penetrate the light, making the touch screen brighter. At the same time, it can also ensure high conductivity, which is difficult to solve for those touch screen materials in the past at the same time. "In the past, diamonds were thought to have the highest thermal conductivity, but graphene was twice as high."

It is worth mentioning that graphene also has good flexibility, that is, it can be bent and folded to a certain extent without damaging the screen.

"From these advantages, graphene is particularly suitable for application in the electronic information industry. Large enterprises such as IBM and Samsung pay close attention to its development." Shi Haofei said.

Successfully prepared 7-inch graphene touch screen

It is reported that since its discovery in 2004, many researchers have been puzzled by how to solve the two key problems of large-area, high-quality graphene preparation and rapid and efficient transfer, so that graphene can be used in transparent electrodes.

"If the resistive touch screen is to be made of this material, graphene needs to be catalytic grown on the metal surface first, and then transferred to a suitable substrate for application." Shi Haofei told reporters that this is equivalent to laying a thin layer of plastic wrap on a football field. It is particularly difficult to make it smooth and intact.

It is reported that through the research of "key technology of graphene transparent electrode", they used industrial raw materials such as plastic, liquid benzene, etc. as effective carbon sources to grow high-quality graphene at a low temperature of 300 ℃.

At present, Chongqing Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences has grown 15 inches of uniform single-layer graphene on copper foil substrate and successfully transferred it to flexible PET substrate and other substrate surfaces. Through further application, it has also prepared a 7-inch graphene touch screen.

In the laboratory of Chongqing Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the reporter saw that researchers attached the graphene touch screen to the display screen of an ordinary laptop computer. After debugging, they could easily write on the screen with a stylus.

Strive to achieve industrialization within one year, with an annual output of millions of films 

If graphene transparent electrode is used to replace ITO transparent electrode and other products that are most widely used in the market, will its cost and price be high?

Shi Haofei introduced that, due to the rich carbon content in nature, rare metals and precious metals are not needed like other transparent electrodes, so the cost of raw materials is lower. If mass production is realized, its price will be very competitive, even cheaper than existing products.

It is understood that the global demand for mobile phone touch screens in 2013 is about 965 million pieces, and the output value will exceed 13 billion dollars. By 2015, the demand of tablet computers for large size touch screens will also reach 230 million pieces. This provides a broad market for the application of graphene.

At present, the Chongqing Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is negotiating with venture capital institutions in Guangdong to achieve mass production of graphene within one year. By then, its annual output is expected to reach millions.

He said that the application of graphene will bring great changes to our mobile phones and tablets. "If other components and materials on mobile phones and tablets are improved accordingly, perhaps in the next 5-10 years, the display screens of mobile phones and computers will be truly collapsible."