Pops110 Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 Looks interesting. Not sure how it would translate to us audio nuts? https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/05/a-graphene-speaker-with-no-moving-parts-uses-heat-to-produce-sound/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaphod Beeblebrox Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 Graphene will be very interesting (for millions of applications, not just audio), as soon as all the wrinkles can be ironed out. Building, aeroplanes, loudspeakers are just the tips of a very large ice-berg. Graphene has many possible aplications. Whilst the cited sound source looks interesting, it may not make it to market in a significant way. Or it may. What will, almost certainly, set the cat among the pigeons, are conventional speakers made from graphene. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sub Sonic Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 If it proceeds, it would be interesting if they could make a spherical shaped speaker... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legend Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 Graphene is strictly a 2D array (as dreaded hexagons!) of carbon atoms that undoubtedly has many unusual properties, particularly electrical. However although it is many times stronger than steel its mechanical properties seem to me problematic, as someone who researched the structural and mechanical properties of intermetallic compounds/ordered alloys. To be useful mechanically one would need to stack many layers – and then you are back to something more like graphite where there is strength within the layers but not between layers. This would not matter if the material was purely in tension and you could indeed make a superstrong hammock out of it, as was quoted in the Nobel prize presentation. However if there is compression then the layers will just move apart eliminating such strength. Graphene also appears to have poor fracture resistance, like may hard ceramics. With regard to the audio application in gizmo the problem would be getting enough loudness (SPL) because it seems me that the graphene layer cannot move very far so you would need to compensate by having a very large area, particularly for bass notes where one must to move a lot of air - in this it has the problems of all panel speakers. However it might be good for tweeters etc. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davewantsmoore Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 6 minutes ago, legend said: To be useful mechanically one would need to stack many layers – and then you are back to something more like graphite where there is strength within the layers but not between layers. The proposal uses one layer, which doesn't move (it creates the pressure via heating) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legend Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 (edited) Understood - sorry if I conflated 2 things (mono & multilayer) in the same post - but even with heating effects it will still have problems moving much air. A colleague of mine with whom I published some papers in Oxford went onto study carbon nano-tubes and 'bucky balls' (a bit like nano-soccer balls) for which he gained a Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS) - but I don't think anything useful/practical came of it! Edited May 15, 2017 by legend further thoughts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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