GRAPHENE has been heralded as the new supermaterial of our time. It possesses incredible strength and elasticity, while its exceptionally high conductivity and use in flexible semiconductors could soup up computing. If all that weren't enough, there's another way that the atom-thick layers of carbon might improve your life: stopping your shoes from smelling.
Sheets of graphene oxide are highly effective at killing bacteria, say Chunhai Fan, Qing Huang and colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai. The team sprayed sheets of the material with an aerosol rich in Escherichia coli, and then placed the sheets in an incubator and examined them under a microscope. "We observed that E.coli cells were destroyed when they interacted with the graphene oxide," says Fan, providing the first evidence that graphene oxide kills bacteria.
The mechanism is not fully understood, he says. Nevertheless, if the material's bactericidal properties extend beyond E. coli, it could find its way into a host of new applications, from warding off shoe odour to packaging that will help keep food fresh for longer (ACS Nano, DOI: 10.1021/nn101097v).
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Not The Same
Thu Jul 29 14:10:45 BST 2010 by Eric Kvaalen
Graphene oxide is not the same as graphene. I was surprised by title and the subhead on your table of contents page which says, "Bacteria don't survive an encounter with graphene, the atom-thick sheets of carbon that are set to soup up computing." But reading the article I find that it is not the case at all.
Not The Same
Mon Aug 02 10:26:11 BST 2010 by Colin Barras
You're correct, graphene and graphene oxide are not the same thing. However, I don't agree that the heading - in which the word graphene does not feature - is wrong. Recent research suggests that graphene nanocircuits may be drawn on a sheet of graphene oxide.
(long URL - click here)
The title simply refers to 'computer supermaterial' - graphene oxide may find such a role in future.
I'd also argue that 'graphene' is used as a synecdoche to refer to chemistry involving single sheets of carbon. You may disagree. But any possible confusion is clarified in the second paragraph where it is stated that: "Sheets of graphene oxide are highly effective at killing bacteria".
Not The Same
Tue Aug 03 08:02:37 BST 2010 by Eric Kvaalen
You're right, I do disagree.
It's true that the title does not use the word graphene, but the subhead in your table of contents does. I was very surprised there to read that graphene (which is like the top surface of a sheet of graphite) would be capable of killing bacteria!
But, yes, you're right, the article eventually does get to the truth.
A More Obvious Application
Sun Aug 01 19:05:20 BST 2010 by Dr Tony Marshall
Whilst reducing the "hum" from shoes is catchy, I would have thought that this material would be more useful in wound dressings and medical coverings in Operating theatres, ITUs and neonatal units etc. That is, if the material can be shown to have a general bacteriocidal effect.
Caution Advised
Mon Aug 02 01:35:58 BST 2010 by Karl
http://www.lostworldarts.com
"Sheets of graphene oxide are highly effective at killing bacteria"
"The mechanism is not fully understood"
Based on these two statements, I think I'll watch what happens to the early adopters before I start using graphene oxide. It will be interesting to see whether it has the same effect on vertebrate cells as on bacterial cells.
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