Graphene material development

Various tools, like the techniques described in this chapter, make use of macro properties to simulate the effective properties of composite structures. At some scales, those tools will normally give sufficient accuracy to determine effective properties, thanks to the nature of the simulated property at that scale. As seen in the previous section, at the nano-scale, some properties might need the use of quantum mechanics to predict the properties of a composite material as some components show properties such as current transport that are better described by such theories (Lee, 2000 Shunin and Schwartz, 1997), for example, it is well known that graphene may develop a resistivity of 10 2 cm (derived from early experiments on electron mobility graphite), but its manufacturing process as well as impurities cause different macroscopic electrical properties. 

In contrast, exfoliation of graphene in liquid environments offers a route to large-scale production, from simple starting materials. There are various approaches that have been developed to enable effective exfoliation of graphene in liquids. 

The unique properties predicted for graphene comprise a number of very peculiar electronic properties—from an anomalous quantum Hall effect to the absence of localization. As new procedures for the large-scale production of graphene are expected to be developed in the near future, most of such properties—and those still unknown—will be soon experimentally demonstrated, thus permitting the development of the many important technological applications foreseen for this material. 

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