0:02 What if your phone battery charged in
0:04 seconds instead of hours? What if
0:05 buildings could cut their carbon
0:07 emissions in half? What if medical
0:09 sensors could detect diseases years
0:11 earlier than they do today? Graphine was
0:13 supposed to deliver on all of those and
0:15 more. Since 2004, researchers called it
0:17 a wonder material. It would
0:19 revolutionize everything. [music] 20
0:20 years later, well, most of those
0:22 promises fell flat. Graphine earned a
0:24 reputation of vaporware as those
0:26 promises vanished well into vapor. No
0:28 matter how many years have passed, the
0:30 big breakthroughs in graphine were
0:31 always just a few years away from
0:33 changing the world. But something's
0:35 different now. Graphine super capacitors
0:37 are powering AI data centers. Graphine
0:39 enhanced concrete is [music] being
0:41 poured at industrial sites. Medical
0:42 sensors using graphine are hitting the
0:44 market. [music] The trickle is starting
0:47 to turn into a flood. So what changed?
0:48 How did graphine go from miracle
0:50 material to overhyped curiosity [music]
0:52 to actually delivering results? And more
0:53 importantly, how will these
0:55 breakthroughs actually affect you? I'm
1:02 This [music] video is brought to you by
1:05 Ground News. This is graphine, but so is
1:09 this and this and this. But first, let
1:10 me back up for a moment. You might
1:12 already know about graphine, but what
1:14 exactly is it in the first place?
1:15 Graphine [music] was first isolated in
1:18 2004. It's a single layer of carbon
1:19 atoms that are arranged in a flat
1:22 hexagonal pattern, just one atom thick.
1:24 That combination gives graphine
1:26 incredible properties. Hexagons are
1:28 tough. Carbon can be tough, too. Just
1:30 think about carbon, fiber, or diamonds.
1:32 Put them together and you get something
1:34 200 times stronger than steel, [music]
1:36 all while being only one atom thick. And
1:38 here's another trick. Carbon is very
1:40 conductive in the right arrangements.
1:42 Graphite can even beat copper under
1:44 certain conditions. These hexagonal
1:46 lises work like express highways for
1:48 electrons. Usually defects in a material
1:50 act like potholes that create a traffic
1:52 jam because they slow electrons down.
1:54 Graphine structure gives electrons a
1:57 clean path and the results is superb
1:59 electrical and thermal conductivity. It
2:01 gets weirder though. Graphine stays
2:03 flexible despite being so strong.
2:04 [music] Even stranger, you can make it
2:06 from regular graphite. Just grab some
2:08 scotch tape and a pencil and you could
2:10 technically make graphine at your desk
2:12 right now. Of course, making useful
2:14 amounts of high-quality graphine is much
2:16 trickier and we'll get to that later.
2:18 Now, let's look at how graphine is
2:23 Paragraph claims to be the first company
2:25 mass-producing [music] graphine based
2:27 electronic sensors. They're based in the
2:29 UK and make graphine field effect
2:31 transistors or GFETs. These are
2:33 basically just souped-up versions of the
2:34 regular FETSS that you'll find in tons
2:37 of devices. Which begs the question, if
2:39 it ain't broke, why add graphine?
2:41 Graphine makes better sensors for a few
2:43 reasons. It's cheap, but we'll get to
2:45 more of that later. It's tough and it
2:47 lasts longer than similar sensors. That
2:49 electrical conductivity that we talked
2:50 about earlier, it makes for higher
2:52 efficiency and less heat loss. Plus,
2:54 graphine has some quirks that really
2:56 shine here. You can easily tune its
2:58 optical characteristics. That means you
3:00 can tailor it for very specific jobs.
3:02 One material, lots of different sensor
3:04 types, and because it's only one atom
3:06 thick, miniaturaturization is a breeze.
3:07 [music] It's perfect for things like
3:10 endoscopy and bioensors. Now, here's
3:11 where it gets really interesting.
3:13 Graphine has a special relationship with
3:14 something called the quantum hall
3:17 effect. Now stay with me here. Going to
3:19 get a little heady here for a second.
3:20 The hall effect lets us move electrons
3:23 in fast predictable patterns as long as
3:24 they're moving in a current and a
3:26 magnetic field. Apply this to bulk
3:28 material and the electrons bunch up on
3:30 one side which creates a transverse
3:31 voltage [music]
3:33 also known as the halt voltage. Now
3:35 here's the quantum part. Take that same
3:37 material and cool it down to 1° Kelvin.
3:41 That's about -457° F. And that's where
3:43 things get really weird. The voltage
3:45 doesn't scale smoothly anymore. [music]
3:47 You get distinct jumps and flat
3:49 plateaus. The extreme cold stops atoms
3:51 from vibrating as much. And this gives
3:53 electrons time to cooperate with each
3:54 other. While it creates some neat
3:56 effects, extreme cold has its problems
3:58 as well. Keeping things at 1°ree Kelvin
4:01 is expensive and energyintensive. That's
4:02 where graphine comes in because it can
4:04 tap into this effect at room
4:06 temperature. These voltage plateaus give
4:08 graphine sensors incredible precision
4:10 when compared to other sensors. For
4:12 medical applications, this mix of
4:14 sensitivity and certainty could save
4:16 lives. Paragraph isn't limiting
4:17 themselves to medical sensors, though.
4:18 They're not even selling finished
4:20 sensors. Instead, they build the main
4:22 sensing surface. They grow graphine on a
4:25 sapphire base and add contacts with a
4:27 gate electrode. Then, customers add
4:29 whatever receptor they need. Same
4:32 canvas, different sensors. The result?
4:34 Paragraph has a potassium ion sensor for
4:36 healthcare, heavy metal sensors for
4:38 agricultural runoff, gas sensors for
4:40 hydrogen industries, and pH sensors for
4:42 everything from gene therapy to food processing.
4:48 Let's talk about optical microchips. 2D
4:49 Photonix [music] is working on them with
4:52 one of its subsidiaries, Cam Graphic,
4:53 which spun out of the University of
4:55 Cambridge. Over in Italy, they're about
4:57 to mass-produce optical microchips
5:00 enhanced with graphine. So, what is an
5:02 optical microchip? Well, it's a
5:03 specialized circuit that uses light
5:05 instead of electrical signals to process
5:07 data. These chips convert electrical
5:09 signals into optical signals and back
5:11 again. They pair well with fiber optics,
5:13 which are getting more and more popular.
5:14 You can probably guess how graphine
5:16 helps here. We already talked about a
5:18 graphine sensor that can detect light.
5:20 So, the same principles apply here.
5:23 Optical microchips are extremely fast.
5:24 Now, I can't find specific performance
5:26 numbers for 2D photonix chips, but their
5:28 German competitor, Black Semiconductor,
5:31 claims its graphine chips hit 10 pabits
5:33 per second. Now, a pedabit is a
5:36 quadrillion bits. That's 1,000 terabs.
5:39 It's absurdly fast. Cam Graphics says it
5:41 chips do all of this while using less
5:43 energy and costing less. Now, remember
5:45 graphine's thermal conductivity? Well,
5:47 it passively dissipates heat, so no
5:50 active cooling is needed. Now, think
5:51 about data centers for a second, because
5:54 cooling is a massive cost. These chips
5:56 could reduce cooling energy by up to
5:58 80%. With AI data centers exploding and
6:00 jacking up our energy costs, anything
6:03 that saves power in water matters.
6:04 There's another bonus. Graphine's
6:06 durability means these chips work in a
6:08 much wider temperature range than
6:10 standard chips. However, these optical
6:12 microchips are not on store shelves just
6:15 yet, but 2D Photonix is building a pilot
6:17 plant outside of Milan. Once it's
6:18 complete, they claim they can produce
6:20 200 millimeter wide graphine-enhanced
6:22 chips at scale. The cost would compete
6:24 with standard silicon chips, and there's
6:26 no timeline yet, and jumping to
6:27 commercialization is always the hardest
6:30 part. That said, 2D Photonix secured 25
6:33 million pounds or about 32.6 million in
6:35 funding from backers like Italy's
6:37 Sovereign Wealth Fund, Sony, and the
6:39 NATO Innovation Fund. But it's not just
6:41 about sensors. Graphine is already
6:43 boosting energy storage systems. But
6:45 before I get to that though, let me show
6:46 you something about how we get the
6:48 information on these tech advances.
6:49 Depending on where you read about solar
6:51 or energy storage innovations, they're
6:53 either revolutionary breakthroughs that
6:55 will transform energy, or just another
6:57 overhyped green tech bubble. When
6:59 stories mix cutting edge science,
7:00 billion-dollar investments, and climate
7:02 claims, how do you know if you're
7:03 getting the full picture? That's where
7:05 today's sponsor, Ground News, comes in.
7:07 Created by a former NASA engineer,
7:09 Ground News pulls from over 50,000
7:11 sources and breaks down political bias,
7:13 credibility, ownership, and even
7:14 financial incentives behind the
7:16 coverage. A great example, take any
7:18 major story about renewable energy
7:20 policy, like this one about President
7:22 Trump stripping renewable energy from
7:23 the [music] US National Renewable Energy
7:26 Laboratory name. With one click, I can
7:28 see a summary, political bias, ownership
7:30 details, and a factuality breakdown for
7:32 every outlet that's covering it. The
7:33 centerleing source keeps it
7:34 straightforward but highlights what
7:36 changed. The left-leaning headline
7:39 focuses on sadness and emotion over this
7:41 change. Meanwhile, one right-leaning
7:43 source just says the name changed with
7:45 no hint as to why. [music] Same story,
7:47 three completely different narratives.
7:48 Now, if you're watching my channel, you
7:50 probably like digging deeper into the
7:51 [music] science and technology behind
7:53 these stories. Ground News helps you
7:55 compare coverage, spot bias, and catch
7:56 what others might have missed. I
7:58 especially like the blind spot feed. It
8:00 shows stories under reportported by
8:01 [music] one side of the spectrum. It's
8:03 helped me recognize my own blind spots
8:04 and understand the nuance behind the
8:06 headlines. For a limited time, you can
8:08 get the same exact plan I use for nearly
8:11 half off. Just head to ground.news/
8:13 undecided or scan the QR code to save
8:15 40% off their Vantage plan. Thanks to
8:17 Ground News and to all of you for
8:19 supporting the channel. Now, let's get
8:20 back to how graphine is impacting the
8:24 energy storage industry.
8:25 Graphine's electrical and thermal
8:27 properties make it perfect for batteries
8:29 and capacitors. We've covered companies
8:31 like Skeleton Technologies before and
8:33 their graphine energy storage devices
8:35 are already on the market. Let's quickly
8:37 recap how they work at a high level. For
8:39 batteries, you can add graphine to a
8:41 lithium batteries anode. The enhanced
8:42 conductivity and surface area make the
8:45 anode better at moving charge around.
8:46 Capacitors are different from batteries
8:48 because batteries store energy
8:49 chemically. Batteries are optimized for
8:51 a higher energy storage instead of
8:54 extremely high peak power and ultra fast
8:55 cycling. Capacitors store energy
8:57 electrostatically, kind of like rubbing
8:59 your hair on a balloon. They use two
9:01 electrically charged plates, one
9:03 positive, one negative. And unlike
9:05 batteries, capacitors are optimized for
9:07 very fast charge and discharge, but with
9:10 lower storage capacity. Super capacitors
9:11 are a hybrid. They use the charged
9:13 plates of a capacitor, but also use
9:15 electrodes and a liquid electrolyte like
9:16 batteries. And those electrodes get
9:19 covered in a porous conductive material
9:21 like carbon, which boosts performance.
9:22 So, you can probably see where I'm going
9:24 with this. Because graphine is
9:26 conductive and thin, it's often
9:28 suggested as a carbon replacement in
9:30 super capacitors. Surface area limits
9:32 capacitance. More surface area means
9:34 better charge storage. And Skeleton
9:36 Technologies takes this further. They've
9:38 patented something they call curved
9:40 graphine. It's a specialized form with a
9:42 crumpled shape. So, think of a ruffled
9:45 potato chip. The wavy geometry increases
9:47 usable surface area compared to flat
9:49 graphine, which enables even higher
9:51 performance. They claim 1 million charge
9:53 cycles. Our earlier video covered their
9:55 super batteries, which bridge the gap
9:56 between batteries and super capacitors
9:59 using curved graphine. And like I
10:00 already mentioned, they're already on
10:02 the market. But Skeleton Technologies
10:04 isn't stopping there. In November 2025,
10:06 they opened a super battery factory in
10:08 Varhouse, Finland. This is part of the
10:11 EU's just transition fund or JTF as an
10:12 investment program for climate neutral
10:15 economies. And Skeleton and the EU see
10:16 these batteries helping data centers
10:18 become more efficient. They're also
10:21 working on graphine GPUs. They call them
10:24 GG GPUs. They claim the curved graphine
10:26 reduces AI energy consumption by up to
10:29 45%, lowers power requirements by 44%
10:31 and boosts the computing performance in
10:35 flops by 40%. Now, these claims are big.
10:36 I mean, big enough that I'm a little
10:38 skeptical because I haven't found third
10:40 party verification. But still, anything
10:42 that reduces AI's resource consumption
10:48 Graphine as we know it today was born at
10:50 [music] the University of Manchester and
10:51 their researchers are still innovating
10:53 with it. The University of Manchester's
10:55 graphine engineering innovation center
10:57 is working on a graphine enhanced
11:00 concrete and they call it concretine. I
11:02 would have gone with graphite but I'm
11:04 not calling the shots. Using graphine to
11:06 strengthen concrete makes sense but
11:07 that's not the main goal here. The real
11:10 target is carbon emissions. Cement
11:12 production contributes more than 7% of
11:14 global CO2 emissions. So how does
11:16 graphine help with that? To answer that,
11:19 let's break down concrete. Not
11:21 literally. The main ingredient in
11:22 concrete is cement. The main ingredient
11:25 in cement is something called clinker.
11:26 Clinker is made by heating clay and
11:30 limestone to between 900 and,500° C,
11:32 which causes limestone to decompose into
11:35 calcium oxide and a ton of carbon
11:36 dioxide. That's a process called
11:39 calcination. We could skip the CO2 heavy
11:41 calcination phase by using plain
11:43 limestone, but without calcination, the
11:45 concrete is just too brittle to be
11:47 useful. This is where graphine comes in.
11:49 Add super tough graphine to uncalcinated
11:51 cement and you overcome that fragility
11:54 while cutting carbon emissions. GEIC
11:56 claims concretine costs 15 to 20% less
11:59 than regular concrete, which includes
12:00 swapping materials, avoiding carbon
12:03 taxes, and needing fewer repairs over a
12:05 lifetime. Now, some of that math sounds
12:07 a little handwavy to me, so this will
12:09 merit closer inspection once the tech
12:11 matures a little bit, and the tech is
12:14 maturing. GIC has done several sidewalk
12:16 pores. They recently teamed up with SeUK
12:19 to produce concretine at scale. In April
12:21 of 2025, they [music] poured 15 cubic
12:23 meters of graphine and micronized lime
12:25 enhanced concrete at a North Umbrean
12:27 wastewater treatment facility. This
12:30 particular mix allegedly produced 49%
12:32 less CO2 emissions per cubic meter than
12:34 traditional concrete. If everything is
12:36 as good and green as reported, we'll be
12:39 seeing a lot more of this stuff. But big
12:42 if, though.
12:43 Graphine is starting to live up to some
12:45 of the hype from 2004, but we're still
12:46 in the early phases for most
12:49 applications. So, what's the holdup?
12:51 Well, we're still working out how to
12:53 make graphine at scale. Every well
12:55 doumented manufacturing method has
12:57 drawbacks. There's an iron triangle
12:59 here. You know the type where you have
13:00 three options, but you can only pick
13:03 two. You can make a lot of graphine, you
13:05 can make it cheaply, or you can make it
13:07 at a high quality. Only two. Take
13:10 chemical vapor deposition or CVD. It's a
13:11 common production method because it
13:13 makes a lot of graphine at a reasonable
13:16 quality. CVD works by depositing a
13:18 carbonri gas onto the metal substrate at
13:21 high temperatures. The gas decomposes
13:24 and forms graphine. The problem, the
13:26 best substrates are pricey copper or
13:28 nickel. Those high temperatures need
13:30 tons of energy. Then you have to move
13:32 the graphine from the substrate to the
13:34 final device. That's risky because you
13:36 can get cracks, wrinkles, and defects
13:38 that ruin the graphine. These costs add
13:40 up fast and can cancel out graphine's
13:42 low material cost. It's not viable for
13:44 commercial applications at scale.
13:46 Mechanical exfoliation is another
13:48 example. It's basically the Scotch tape
13:51 method, but refined. use adhesives to
13:53 physically peel graphine layers off of
13:55 graphite. It produces decent quality
13:56 graphine, but we haven't figured out how
13:59 to scale it up. Then there's chemical
14:01 reduction. This uses chemicals like
14:03 hydroine or glucose to strip oxygen from
14:05 graphite. The positive is that it
14:07 produces a ton of graphine at a
14:09 reasonable price, but it messes with the
14:11 hexagonal structure. So basically, you
14:14 end up with a lower quality graphine. So
14:16 I can hear you asking, why does quality
14:18 matter? Just pump out tons of it
14:20 cheaply. Unfortunately, quality is
14:21 critical for most applications that
14:23 we've talked about today. Defects and
14:24 impurities like the potholes in the
14:26 electron superighway we discussed
14:28 earlier, they wreck the material's
14:30 strength and conductivity. The thinner
14:31 you want your graphine, the harder it
14:33 gets to control these issues. And here's
14:35 the frustrating part. The thicker your
14:37 graphine, the fewer revolutionary
14:40 qualities it keeps. Now, combine all of
14:41 that with the general lack of
14:43 consistency and the pricey production
14:44 materials of techniques we mentioned
14:46 earlier, and yeah, you can see how
14:48 mistakes can be both common and
14:50 expensive. Now, there are proprietary
14:52 techniques that work around this. They
14:53 allegedly make enough graphine at
14:55 suitable quality for commercial use.
14:57 They seem to work. Companies have
14:59 graphine products on the market, as
15:00 we've covered in our videos on Skeleton
15:03 Technologies, or the graphine proskite
15:05 solar panels. However, these production
15:08 methods are proprietary. The details are
15:10 hidden. It's understandable in a
15:11 competitive market, though. And speaking
15:13 of which, the graphine market is
15:15 expected to grow from about $1.2 billion
15:19 today to 3.58 billion in 2030. You can
15:20 see why companies want to protect their
15:23 edge. Still, it pays to be skeptical in
15:25 emerging tech fields. I remain a little
15:26 skeptical of huge claims hidden behind
15:29 the proprietary tag. Normally, I like to
15:31 place new tech on NASA's technological
15:33 readiness level. It's a handy scale that
15:35 NASA uses to assess the technologies
15:37 maturity, but that's difficult here.
15:38 We're talking about graphine, but that
15:41 covers a dizzing array of technologies.
15:42 Tech already on the market, companies
15:44 like Skeleton Technologies, that tops
15:46 probably at a scale of nine. Stuff like
15:48 Manchester's Concretine with just a few
15:50 successful demos, sits closer to maybe a
15:53 seven. That means it's flight qualified
15:55 technology ready for implementation into
15:57 existing systems. The tech that hasn't
15:59 hit those milestones is further back. So
16:01 all these years later, is graphine
16:04 finally living up to the 2004 hype? It's
16:06 complicated. Graphine hasn't been
16:07 implemented into every industry that it
16:10 was supposed to revolutionize, but it is
16:12 in commercially available tech right
16:14 now. Graphine isn't enabling the far out
16:16 stuff the initial media buzz promised,
16:18 but the fact that it's actually starting
16:20 to appear in the world around us, it's a
16:22 huge step forward. Many wonder materials
16:25 are not as lucky. But what do you think?
16:27 Is graphine still a much do about
16:28 nothing or are you excited about what's
16:30 to come? Jump in the comments and let me
16:32 know. You can also check out my extended
16:34 cut of this video over on Patreon where
16:36 I go into an interesting use of graphine
16:38 as a deep sea coding. It's really kind
16:40 of wild. And speaking of that, these
16:41 videos [music] take a team to make a
16:44 team of humans. Real research, real
16:45 interviews, real [music] feedback from
16:48 experts. There's no AI slop. If that
16:50 matters to you, Patreon support helps a
16:52 ton. And a big welcome to new supporter
16:54 plus member Casey Culie. The link's in
16:55 the description if you'd like to join.
16:57 But honestly, just watching like you are
16:59 right now is absolutely awesome. So,
17:01 thank you and check out my follow-up
17:02 podcast still to be determined. We'll
17:04 keep this conversation going. Keep your
17:06 mind open, stay curious, and I'll see
