Graphene is renowned as the thinnest material discovered to date, consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern. This configuration grants it several extraordinary properties, rendering it highly promising for a range of applications, such as batteries, supercapacitors, antennas, water filters, transistors, solar cells, and touchscreens, among others. The physicists who initially synthesized graphene in a laboratory setting received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. Intriguingly, a recent study published in the journal ACS Nano suggests that the 19th-century inventor Thomas Edison may have unknowingly produced graphene as a byproduct during his experiments with incandescent light bulbs over a century ago.
Co-author James Tour, a chemist at Rice University, expressed his enthusiasm, stating, “To reproduce what Thomas Edison did, with the tools and knowledge we have now, is very exciting. Discovering that he could have produced graphene ignites curiosity about what other insights might be hidden in historical experiments. What questions might our scientific predecessors pose if they could join us in today's labs? What answers can we unearth when we reexamine their efforts through a contemporary lens?”
While Edison did not originate the concept of incandescent lamps, his predecessors’ versions typically had brief lifespans and demanded high electric currents, making them unsuitable for his vision of mass commercialization. In his experiments with various filament materials, including carbonized cardboard and compressed lampblack, Edison encountered quick burnout, similar to filaments made from different grasses and canes like hemp and palmetto. Ultimately, he found that carbonized bamboo provided the most efficient filaments, lasting over 1200 hours with a 110-volt power source.
Lucas Eddy, a graduate student under Tour at Rice, sought ways to mass-produce graphene using the most minimalistic, cost-effective equipment feasible, employing materials that were both economical and readily accessible. In exploring potential methods like arc welders and natural phenomena such as lightning striking trees, he discovered these were “complete dead ends.” Eddy concluded that Edison's light bulb presented an ideal solution, as, unlike other early light bulbs, his version could attain the crucial 2000 degrees Celsius required for flash Joule heating—an optimal process for creating what is known as turbostratic graphene.