Graphene – new paths to innovative energy

Graphene and its interaction with neutrinos and invisible radiation

Research into neutrino particles and their possible interactions with matter has intensified in recent years. This is a direct consequence of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics being awarded to Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald, the heads of the two experimental groups Super-Kamiokande and SNO, both of which studied the properties of neutrinos.

These scientists’ work conclusively proved that the three types of neutrino known today oscillate and can spontaneously change into one another. A neutrino of a particular type can be produced in a reaction with an elementary particle, and neutrinos of a particular mass can propagate through space. The proof that they have mass – and therefore energy – is the main argument for the theoretical possibility of converting the kinetic energy of neutrinos into electric current. This explains the Neutrino Energy Group’s experimental work on developing a nanomaterial that can convert the energy of the radiation fields around us into electric current.

The technology, called “neutrinovoltaics”, is strikingly similar to photovoltaics, but does not have its critical weaknesses. Neutrinovoltaics was developed by an international team of scientists led by Holger Thorsten Schubart. Since it was believed for years that neutrinos do not interact with matter, even scientists specialising in this field of research found it difficult to give a clear answer on the applicability of the new findings. A lack of consensus in the scientific community about the role of neutrinos and the absence of evidence for the interaction of neutrinos with substances made it hard for the developers of neutrinovoltaic technology to defend with arguments the proposed method of obtaining electricity from ambient fields of the invisible spectrum.

How the situation has changed in the eight years since the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded was reported by the project leader, President of the Neutrino® Energy Group Holger Thorsten Schubart, among others at the congress on epochal energy technologies in Fellbach in 2023, where this picture was taken during an interview.

Interview on neutrino technology

How does the knowledge currently available about neutrinos advance neutrino technology?

Schubart. When we started talking about neutrinovoltaic technology at various conferences in 2014, the scientific world and corporate structures unfortunately did not accept our concept of creating a fundamentally new electricity technology that would put the intense neutrino flux at the service of people. Each of our presentations was followed by attacks and arguments that neutrino particles have no mass and do not interact with matter. We also received threats and accusations. We even had to listen to such comments from highly respected scientists. Unfortunately, the experimental data we presented on the performance of the technology were not accepted at that time.

Now we can see astonishing results from your company’s work. We read about contracts for building plants in a number of countries, including Russia, and about the commissioning of the first power generation plant in Switzerland at the end of 2023 / beginning of 2024. It is unlikely that this would have happened if the scientific community had continued to deny that neutrinovoltaic technology works?

Schubart. You are right. The scientific community is slowly accepting our argument that the radiation fields around us can be a source of unlimited electricity. But every experimental result must be scientifically substantiated. Without creating a theoretical model, providing experimental data alone is completely insufficient for broad acceptance. And it is the experimental results and the theoretical justifications that create a holistic and clear picture for the public. The news of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for proving that neutrinos have mass helped us a great deal, of course. Any schoolchild will tell you that, according to the laws of physics, where there is mass there is also energy. Given that the flux of cosmic neutrinos is 60 billion particles per second per square centimetre of the Earth’s surface, the whole air is literally “filled” with energy. Since the Nobel Prize was awarded, the number of our opponents has fallen by at least half. However, I would like to stress that it would be a big mistake to claim that the multilayer nanomaterial we have made from alternating layers of graphene and doped silicon converts only the kinetic energy of neutrino particles with mass into electricity.

Can you tell us something about the mechanism by which the energy of the ambient radiation fields is converted into electric current?

Schubart. The mechanism of conversion consists in creating vibrations in the atoms of graphene, which forms a hexagonal crystal lattice. In graphene a wave arises – like waves on the surface of the sea – from a combination of small spontaneous movements. This leads to larger spontaneous movements. The displacement of atoms, added to the thermal displacement of other atoms, creates surface waves with horizontal polarisation. In acoustics this effect is known as “Love waves”. Because of the particular features of graphene’s crystal lattice, its atoms vibrate as if in tandem. This distinguishes their movements from the spontaneous movements of molecules in liquids. The thermal Brownian motion of the graphene atoms is therefore of decisive importance for the energy conversion mechanism. The vibrations of the outer atomic layers on the surface of nanoparticles less than 10–20 nanometres thick are large and play an important role in the “behaviour” of this material. Graphene must be applied evenly with a thickness of one atom, otherwise the efficiency of converting radiation fields into electric current drops sharply. So we have to work on developing special equipment for applying graphene and silicon to metal foils measuring 200 × 300 mm and more. Without such equipment we cannot speak of mastering the process in a production plant. The laboratory technology for depositing graphene and silicon is expensive and not suitable for industrial production.

Why did you choose graphene as the material, and how does the vibration of graphene, which leads to a “graphene” wave, cause electric current?

Schubart. Graphene is a single-atom layer of graphite. Graphite itself is one of the allotropic modifications of carbon, which has the atomic number 6. The atomic mass of carbon is 12.011, which means it is one of the lightest chemical elements. As a result, the nucleus of the graphene atom recoils most strongly when it is hit by particles with mass from the radiation fields around it. Such a mechanism is described in the work published by the COHERENT Collaboration at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA). We use practically impurity-free graphene and alternate its layers with layers of doped silicon. In this way electron clouds from graphene skew their movement in one direction and generate electric current. The overall effect corresponds to what physicists call “oblique scattering”, in which the electron clouds deflect their movement in the same direction. No other materials or chemical elements with similar properties are known so far. So for us there is not yet any alternative to graphene.

Click to load — connects to YouTube

Source – techcult (Russian)