Graphene is not a material of the future, Since they have been working with it for years and products made with graphene have even been put on the market. However, its development is slow and one of its main drawbacks is that it involves a higher cost than using other alternatives that are already used today. Even so, it is a very promising material that could also improve airplane flights.
Uses of graphene in aeronautics
The aerospace sector is one of the most promising in terms of the use of graphene, thanks to the very low mass and flexibility of the material compared to its Herculean strength. In fact, scientists have already managed to manufacture the world’s first aircraft with “graphene skin” which is characterized by weighing very little and performing stable flights at different temperatures.
Is about Juno, a 3.5 meter drone wide manufactured by engineers from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) in Preston working in collaboration with the Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Center, the National Graphene Institute of the University of Manchester, Haydale Graphene Industries among others. However, the industry is aware that it is costly and it remains to be seen whether graphene will have a widespread commercial use. If so, Juno could be an example to follow.
Some of the qualities and characteristics that graphene brings to Juno with the following:
Lightning resistance
“Airplanes have wire mesh woven into carbon fiber, which makes them conductive,” says Jake Jones, Juno design lead. “If you only had carbon fiber without the metal mesh, the rays would make a hole in it.”
Instead of a built-in metal mesh, Juno has a “graphene skin.” In the event of lightning, the conductive skin acts like a Faraday cage and allows electricity to pass through without causing damage.
Lightness
Due to its strength and conductivity, the use of graphene saves weight to the whole plane. An aspect that could be more than attractive for aircraft and airline manufacturers in the future that are faced with a constant duty to reduce fuel requirements for economic and environmental reasons.
Fast charging batteries
One of the most investigated applications of graphene is the potential of this material to improve batteries thanks to its high surface area and conductivity. Juno’s engineering team has used graphene-enhanced batteries that offer extremely fast reload times.
Graphene airgel as a noise insulator
Once again, graphene has proven to be a magical material with seemingly limitless properties. On this occasion, scientists from the University of Bath are the ones who have managed to create an airgel with an extremely low density capable of absorbing up to 15.8 decibels, that is, enough to reduce aircraft noise to an acceptable level.
In his work published in Nature claim that this new wonder material based on graphene could be perfect for application in motor insulation. Conventional insulators cannot be used in airplanes because every kilogram of extra weight reduces both autonomy and load capacity. That is why cabin noise reduction is one of the holy grails of companies like Boeing and Airbus. Therefore, reducing cabin noise would represent an impressive advance for airplane flights.