Graphene Light Bulb: Advantages & Tech Breakthrough

[atyy]

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32101473

The BBC reports that a graphene light bulb will go on sale. What are its advantages over current technologies?

 

[anorlunda]

It is claimed that this bulb makes more light for less money.

 

[Blackberg]

According to http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32100071 : "It is said to cut energy use by 10% and last longer owing to its conductivity." But of course whoever produces it certainly wants to sell it (which is not a bad thing).

 

[mfb]

Without a clear reference point those 10% don't make sense. I guess they compared it to the worst light bulbs they could find?

 

[rootone]

It's basically a modified LED, so I guess the 10% would be in comparison to standard LED with the same power consumption.

 

[Blackberg]

Not sure if referring to same device, but another lead here on similar topic: http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v14/n3/full/nmat4205.html. "We describe light-emitting diodes (LEDs) made by stacking metallic graphene, insulating hexagonal boron nitride and various semiconducting monolayers into complex but carefully designed sequences. Our first devices already exhibit an extrinsic quantum efficiency of nearly 10% and the emission can be tuned over a wide range of frequencies by appropriately choosing and combining 2D semiconductors (monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides). By preparing the heterostructures on elastic and transparent substrates, we show that they can also provide the basis for flexible and semi-transparent electronics."

 

[atyy]

Blackberg, thanks for the reference by Withers! I found a free version of it at http://arxiv.org/abs/1412.7621.