Bendable Computers are Almost Here Thanks to This New Discovery, its Inventors Say

Graphene, that man-made discovery that won its inventor a Nobel Peace Prize, could be used to produce a bendable computer or serve as an electronic newspaper capable of being folded to fit in a person’s pocket, according to a team of researchers from Northwestern University.

The group recently developed a graphene-based ink that is both highly conductive and tolerant to bending. What’s more, the researchers have used it to inkjet-print graphene patterns that, they said, could be used for extremely detailed, conductive electrodes.

In all, the resulting patterns are some 250 times more conductive than previous attempts to print graphene-based electronic patterns and, for this reason, the team believes could represent a needed step toward low-cost, foldable electronics.

“Graphene has a unique combination of properties that is ideal for next-generation electronics, including high electrical conductivity, mechanical flexibility, and chemical stability,” Mark Hersam, professor of materials science and engineering, said in a press release. “By formulating an inkjet-printable ink based on graphene, we now have an inexpensive and scalable path for exploiting these properties in real-world technologies."

Previously, inkjet printing has been explored as a method for fabricating transistors, solar cells and other electronic parts given its inexpensive and scalable model capable of creating patterns on a variety of substrates.

Though long considered promising, inkjet printing with graphene has posed challenging due to the difficulty in harvesting sufficient amounts of it without compromising its electronic properties.

However, the Northwestern researchers said they’ve developed a new method for mass-producing graphene that not only maintains it conductivity, but can be done at room temperature using ethanol and ethyl cellulose to exfoliate graphite.

The relatively clean process minimizes residues and results in a powder with a high concentration of nanometer–sized flakes, which is then mixed into a solvent to produce ink.

The study regarding the invention was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, and was funded by the Office of Naval Research.

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