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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		How researchers improved a miracle material's durability
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:02
	Publish Date:		2016-05-16 00:00:00
	Description:		The carbon-based "miracle" material graphene has unique molecular qualities that make it useful for microscopic tasks like water filtration. But the nanomaterial’s fragility can limit its effectiveness. Recent research lead by Baoxia Mi at the University of California, Berkeley found ways to strengthen the bonds between thin layers of graphene and improve the material’s durability as a water filter. "We found that we have to glue these layers of graphene oxide together, which means that we have to create some forces between them, and that's how we overcome this challenge. We just use some chemical approaches to bond the layers of graphene oxide." Mi has used two methods to bond the material. There’s a more complicated technique, which involves reacting the graphene with chemicals, and a simpler approach. "We just sandwich some positive charged materials between the graphene oxide. The graphene oxide themselves are negatively charged. So by this sandwiching approach, we can make the membrane filter very stable."
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