Dr. David Mitlin from New York's Clarkson University says he's found a way to manufacture hemp waste into a material "better than graphene." Moreover, he says creating this graphene-like hemp material costs but a minuscule fraction of what it takes to produce graphene.
Presented at an American Chemical Society Meeting in San Francisco, Dr. Mitlin described how he and his team were able to recycle leftover hemp bast fiber into powerful energy-storing supercapacitors. To do this, Mitlin says he first cooked the leftover fibers to achieve hydrothermal synthesis. After the hemp’s lignin and semicellulose dissolve, what’s left are carbon nanosheets incredibly similar to the structure of graphene. He then built the resulting sheets into electrodes and added an ionic liquid for its electrolyte to create a batch of supercapacitors boasting a high energy density.
http://news.yahoo.com/college-professor-found-way-turn-223004242.html
Presented at an American Chemical Society Meeting in San Francisco, Dr. Mitlin described how he and his team were able to recycle leftover hemp bast fiber into powerful energy-storing supercapacitors. To do this, Mitlin says he first cooked the leftover fibers to achieve hydrothermal synthesis. After the hemp’s lignin and semicellulose dissolve, what’s left are carbon nanosheets incredibly similar to the structure of graphene. He then built the resulting sheets into electrodes and added an ionic liquid for its electrolyte to create a batch of supercapacitors boasting a high energy density.
http://news.yahoo.com/college-professor-found-way-turn-223004242.html