If you like many others are in the market for a new light bulb, learn more about the latest in light bulb technology. This new material is nothing if not durable, a surely useful quality in any home good.
First There Were Incandescent Bulbs…
First there were the incandescent bulbs, then LED bulbs. Now? The latest new lightbulb is a graphene light bulb. Researchers from both the U.S. and South Korea have been working on an on-chip visible light source using filaments made of graphene. Small strips of this carbon allotrope are attached to metal electrodes. The strips of graphene were then suspended above a silicon substance and then passed through an electric current in the filaments. The strips would then heat up and emit light.
Light-emitting Filaments Create The World’s Thinnest Light Bulb
The principle of light-emitting filaments works well, creating the world’s thinnest light bulb. Professor of Engineering at Columbia University, James Hone comments on the light emitting technology: “This new type of broadband light emitter can be integrated into chips and will pave the way towards the realization of atomically thin, flexible and transparent displays, and graphene-based, on-chip optical communications.”
Hone emphases the new uses light-emitting filament technology has in our every day world. It is this ability to create light within smaller structures that opens the world of possibility. Researchers have long been testing and hoping to approach the possibilities. One reason is that being able to create light on the surface of microchips is a step forward in the development and betterment of photonic circuits.
Perhaps the reason they have failed to put a light source on a microchip is that they have been using incandescent light bulbs–the classic light bulb–all this time. This doesn’t work because incandescent light bulb filaments need to be extremely hot (think 1000s+ Celsius, if possible) in order for light to even be visible; non-graphene microwires cannot withstand the heat necessary for this. Microchips would surely be damaged.
Enter Graphene…
Graphene light bulbs feature a material that is unique and perfect for its job. It can withstand very, very high temperature without melting the substrate nor the metal electrodes. This is actually due to one of the matter’s very interesting properties: as this material heats up, it becomes a poorer conductor of heat. What happens is that the high temperature stays in its central confined space. Thanks to the unique thermal properties of graphene, researchers have been able to heat it up to half the temperature of the sun. How can one go wrong with such a durable light bulb as a graphene light bulb? The light is said to be so intense, it is visible to the naked eye even in its micro-size–and they use less energy, too.
Light bulbs for the office? Sun Life Light might be your bet!:
