Graphene

It’s no secret that one of the pillars of technological advancement is material science. We often refer to historical periods by the dominant materials of the time: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. The invention and continued development of plastics are central to the modern world, both in the products and convenience we are accustomed to, and in the less convenient consequences for our environment.

Environmental concerns are a topic for a different day. Instead let’s focus on materials, in particular, graphene. Often billed as the “material of the future,” graphene is fairly simple in its structure and formulation. It is a layer of carbon atoms, one atom thick. The tricky part, of course, is making sure it’s only carbon and only one atom thick.

For various reasons related to the chemistry of carbon, graphene is extremely electrically conductive and structurally strong while being astonishingly lightweight. It has potential applications across almost every industry. The main obstacle to graphene becoming a standard material is the difficulty of making it in large quantities.

The first successful isolation and measurement of graphene flakes was in 2004, a research effort led by Geim and Novoselov [cite: https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0410550] that would later win the Nobel Prize for the duo in 2010. The method they used to isolate graphene from a block of graphite is called micromechanical cleavage. It’s also called the Scotch tape technique, since it involves using Scotch tape to peel thinner and thinner layers of carbon until you have graphene. (Yes, really, playing with Scotch tape won a Nobel Prize.)

Since then, research on graphene has accelerated dramatically. Scotch tape may have been the first solution, but it isn’t capable of producing large amounts or large pieces of graphene. Until mass production is possible, the material of the future remains in the future. However, these research efforts have led to significant advancements in the production of a related material called graphene oxide.

Graphene oxide is also a single layer carbon based material, but it is not as chemically pure as graphene. Because it is not entirely made from carbon, graphene oxide does not have all of the electrical and magnetic properties of graphene. It also doesn’t have quite the same level of structural strength, though it is still very strong and very light. Most importantly, it is much easier to synthesize and deploy in real products.

Of the new applications of graphene oxide materials, the most exciting for the audio world is from Ora Graphene Audio. Their GrapheneQ™ technology has the highest concentration of graphene oxide in a free standing membrane. It is not only rigid and light, as you would expect, but also has a high degree of damping. All together these properties allow Ora’s acoustic membranes to reach higher frequencies with less wasted power and vanishingly low distortion levels. First released as the diaphragm in the Ora GQ™ headphones, GrapheneQ™ now also lends it’s incredible acoustic properties to our signature tweeters. It’s the first deployment of a freestanding graphene oxide tweeter in the pro world, and we think it sounds pretty revolutionary.