If you have a light scribe etcher then you should be able to just mix it with water, place on the disc to dry and then etch it! This is how it works with graphite oxide at least. I'm hopeful that activated charcoal will also work. Both are carbon and water soluble but act carbon has more surface area. Best of luck. Try to make a graphene ribbon antenna. You can put voltage into it and test with voltmeter. Good luck
For the water process the instructions involve gluing plastic to the CD, I'm just wondering what kind of plastic and how sticky does the glue have be (somewhere between post-it note glue and held together by the hand of God). Just don't want my first attempt to be my last too
There's mention of a grapene-based film on a sheet that I'm going to try to source. Noting the project ideas too, thank you
Use graphite oxide powder or possibly activated charcoal to make graphene. The light scribe laser will vibrate it into graphene on a plastic (or silicon) substrate.
UCLA researchers have developed a groundbreaking technique that uses a DVD burner to fabricate miniature graphene-based supercapacitors — devices that can charge and discharge a hundred to a thousand times faster than standard batteries.
These micro-supercapacitors, made from a one-atom–thick layer of carbon, can be easily manufactured and readily integrated into small devices, such as next-generation pacemakers.
The new cost-effective fabrication method holds promise for the mass production of these supercapacitors, which have the potential to transform electronics and other fields.
“The integration of energy-storage units with electronic circuits is challenging and often limits the miniaturization of the entire system,” said Richard Kaner, a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, materials science, and engineering at UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. “This is because the necessary energy-storage components scale down poorly in size and are not well suited to the planar geometries of most integrated fabrication processes.”
How it works
[+]
Fabrication process for laser-scribed graphene micro-supercapacitors. (a) A grapene-based film supported on a sheet is placed on a DVD media disc. The disc is inserted into a LightScribe DVD drive and a computer-designed microcircuit is etched onto the film at precise locations to produce graphene circuits. (b) Copper tape is applied along the edges to improve the electrical contacts, and the interdigitated area is defined by polyimide (Kapton) tape. (c) An electrolyte overcoat is then added. Result is (d,e) a planar micro-supercapacitor. (Credit: UCLA)
“Traditional methods for the fabrication of micro-supercapacitors involve labor-intensive lithographic techniques that have proven difficult for building cost-effective devices, thus limiting their commercial application,” said Maher El-Kady, a graduate student in Kaner’s laboratory.
“Instead, we used a consumer-grade LightScribe DVD burner to produce graphene micro-supercapacitors over large areas at a fraction of the cost of traditional devices. Using this technique, we have been able to produce more than 100 micro-supercapacitors on a single disc in less than 30 minutes, using inexpensive materials.”
The process of miniaturization often relies on flattening technology, making devices thinner and more like a geometric plane that has only two dimensions. In developing their new micro-supercapacitor, Kaner and El-Kady used a two-dimensional sheet of carbon, known as graphene, which only has the thickness of a single atom in the third dimension.
Kaner and El-Kady took advantage of a new structural design during the fabrication. For any supercapacitor to be effective, two separated electrodes have to be positioned so that the available surface area between them is maximized. This allows the supercapacitor to store a greater charge.
In their new design, the researchers placed the electrodes side by side using an interdigitated pattern, akin to interwoven fingers. This helped to maximize the accessible surface area available for each of the two electrodes while also reducing the path over which ions in the electrolyte would need to diffuse. As a result, the new supercapacitors have more charge capacity and rate capability than their stacked counterparts.
The researchers found that by placing more electrodes per unit area, they boosted the micro-supercapacitor’s ability to store even more charge.*
Could be made at home with DVD burner and graphite oxide in water
Kaner and El-Kady were able to fabricate these intricate supercapacitors using an affordable and scalable technique that they had developed earlier. They glued a layer of plastic onto the surface of a DVD and then coated the plastic with a layer of graphite oxide.
Then, they simply inserted the coated disc into a commercially available LightScribe optical drive — traditionally used to label DVDs — and took advantage of the drive’s own laser to create the interdigitated pattern. The laser scribing is so precise that none of the “interwoven fingers” touch each other, which would short-circuit the supercapacitor.
“The process is straightforward, cost-effective and can be done at home,” El-Kady said. “One only needs a DVD burner and graphite oxide dispersion in water, which is commercially available at a moderate cost.”
GHDW ago
Managed to source some activated charcoal at the drug store
Any suggestions on what to use as a glue?
freeenergyguy ago
If you have a light scribe etcher then you should be able to just mix it with water, place on the disc to dry and then etch it! This is how it works with graphite oxide at least. I'm hopeful that activated charcoal will also work. Both are carbon and water soluble but act carbon has more surface area. Best of luck. Try to make a graphene ribbon antenna. You can put voltage into it and test with voltmeter. Good luck
GHDW ago
For the water process the instructions involve gluing plastic to the CD, I'm just wondering what kind of plastic and how sticky does the glue have be (somewhere between post-it note glue and held together by the hand of God). Just don't want my first attempt to be my last too
There's mention of a grapene-based film on a sheet that I'm going to try to source. Noting the project ideas too, thank you
freeenergyguy ago
My understanding is that the graphene is made by shooting an infrared pulse laser at graphite oxide powder mixed w water on a substrate.
Another test is to generate hydrogen gas by using a laser in activated charcoal water.
Check previous post for that one
FreeToLive ago
I have a lightscribe burner and had no idea what its used for. This is the only use case I know for it now. Nice.
freeenergyguy ago
Try to make a graphene nanoribbon antenna. Good luck
freeenergyguy ago
Use graphite oxide powder or possibly activated charcoal to make graphene. The light scribe laser will vibrate it into graphene on a plastic (or silicon) substrate.
freeenergyguy ago
UCLA researchers have developed a groundbreaking technique that uses a DVD burner to fabricate miniature graphene-based supercapacitors — devices that can charge and discharge a hundred to a thousand times faster than standard batteries.
These micro-supercapacitors, made from a one-atom–thick layer of carbon, can be easily manufactured and readily integrated into small devices, such as next-generation pacemakers.
The new cost-effective fabrication method holds promise for the mass production of these supercapacitors, which have the potential to transform electronics and other fields.
“The integration of energy-storage units with electronic circuits is challenging and often limits the miniaturization of the entire system,” said Richard Kaner, a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, materials science, and engineering at UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. “This is because the necessary energy-storage components scale down poorly in size and are not well suited to the planar geometries of most integrated fabrication processes.”
How it works
[+]
Fabrication process for laser-scribed graphene micro-supercapacitors. (a) A grapene-based film supported on a sheet is placed on a DVD media disc. The disc is inserted into a LightScribe DVD drive and a computer-designed microcircuit is etched onto the film at precise locations to produce graphene circuits. (b) Copper tape is applied along the edges to improve the electrical contacts, and the interdigitated area is defined by polyimide (Kapton) tape. (c) An electrolyte overcoat is then added. Result is (d,e) a planar micro-supercapacitor. (Credit: UCLA)
“Traditional methods for the fabrication of micro-supercapacitors involve labor-intensive lithographic techniques that have proven difficult for building cost-effective devices, thus limiting their commercial application,” said Maher El-Kady, a graduate student in Kaner’s laboratory.
“Instead, we used a consumer-grade LightScribe DVD burner to produce graphene micro-supercapacitors over large areas at a fraction of the cost of traditional devices. Using this technique, we have been able to produce more than 100 micro-supercapacitors on a single disc in less than 30 minutes, using inexpensive materials.”
The process of miniaturization often relies on flattening technology, making devices thinner and more like a geometric plane that has only two dimensions. In developing their new micro-supercapacitor, Kaner and El-Kady used a two-dimensional sheet of carbon, known as graphene, which only has the thickness of a single atom in the third dimension.
Kaner and El-Kady took advantage of a new structural design during the fabrication. For any supercapacitor to be effective, two separated electrodes have to be positioned so that the available surface area between them is maximized. This allows the supercapacitor to store a greater charge.
In their new design, the researchers placed the electrodes side by side using an interdigitated pattern, akin to interwoven fingers. This helped to maximize the accessible surface area available for each of the two electrodes while also reducing the path over which ions in the electrolyte would need to diffuse. As a result, the new supercapacitors have more charge capacity and rate capability than their stacked counterparts.
The researchers found that by placing more electrodes per unit area, they boosted the micro-supercapacitor’s ability to store even more charge.*
Could be made at home with DVD burner and graphite oxide in water
Kaner and El-Kady were able to fabricate these intricate supercapacitors using an affordable and scalable technique that they had developed earlier. They glued a layer of plastic onto the surface of a DVD and then coated the plastic with a layer of graphite oxide.
Then, they simply inserted the coated disc into a commercially available LightScribe optical drive — traditionally used to label DVDs — and took advantage of the drive’s own laser to create the interdigitated pattern. The laser scribing is so precise that none of the “interwoven fingers” touch each other, which would short-circuit the supercapacitor.
“The process is straightforward, cost-effective and can be done at home,” El-Kady said. “One only needs a DVD burner and graphite oxide dispersion in water, which is commercially available at a moderate cost.”
Flexible electronics uses
The new micro-supercapacitors are also highly ben