@soothfast said
Perhaps the manufacture of graphene would be better facilitated by a zero-gravity environment...?

I guess trying to cleave a one-atom-thick sheet of graphene off a block of the stuff, even with some kind of extremely precise laser, is just too tricky.

It is the adhesion between layers that has to be overcome, not the gravitational effect.

Can you suggest an experimental setup, that would be improved by low-gravity environment?

One of the techniques is the attempt to create the one atom strong layer using cvd: https://www.acsmaterial.com/blog-detail/cvd-graphene.html

@ponderable said
It is the adhesion between layers that has to be overcome, not the gravitational effect.

Can you suggest an experimental setup, that would be improved by low-gravity environment?

One of the techniques is the attempt to create the one atom strong layer using cvd: https://www.acsmaterial.com/blog-detail/cvd-graphene.html

I envision maybe making sheets of graphene from some kind of liquid suspension, but I have no idea if that's possible or, if it can be done, whether it's the best option. Can such an allotrope of carbon be assembled in such a way?

Meanwhile, in a magazine I have lying around there was an article about a serendipitous discovery of nanomachines that can walk unidirectionally along straight lines (as if on train tracks) on a plate of copper when subjected to a bit of electrical excitation. They're able to push things around, and so act like bulldozers. I ran across the article soon after I first ran across this discussion, and wondered if graphene could be constructed atom by atom on a copper plate using these nanomachines. The researchers are in Austria, I think, and I forget what they were actually trying to do with their experiment, but it wasn't anything to do with nanomachines.

@ponderable said
It is the adhesion between layers that has to be overcome, not the gravitational effect.

Can you suggest an experimental setup, that would be improved by low-gravity environment?

One of the techniques is the attempt to create the one atom strong layer using cvd: https://www.acsmaterial.com/blog-detail/cvd-graphene.html

Okay, I've now looked at your link about the CVD method. Very spooky: it depends on a copper substrate!

Get researchin' on this, you! 😉