By Chathushka Perera
A recent scientific paper published under Professor Paul M. Thibado et. al, a surface physics researcher, affiliated with the University of Arkansas (USA), reported the possibility of using graphene as a potential source of limitless power in future. It can be lauded as a much needed sustainable branch of physics in energy production, considering the extremely high demand for energy worldwide.
Where graphite is a crystalline carbon material (allotrope) with atoms organized into a two dimensional honey-comb structure, graphene is a single atomic layer of the same material.
Initial test have indicated that micron sized, sheets of free standing graphene at room temperature tend to exhibit a motion of electrons (thermal motion), comparable to an alternating current (AC), that can be manipulated by the use of two diodes to produce a direct current (DC).
Additionally it was also reported that the diode system helped amplify the amount of energy transferred.
The discovery, a result of several other papers published under Thibado, would hopefully contribute toward powering small electronic devices and sensors by including it into circuits. The research paper, based on stochastic thermodynamics, is a new venture in the field of physics that uses statistical mechanics to understand non-equilibrium thermodynamics in microscopic systems.
