With a thickness of 0.7 nanometers (7/10,000,000,000 m) and a strength 100 times that of steel, graphene is a "material of dreams." It conducts electricity more than 100 times better than copper and can transport electrons over 100 times faster than semiconductor silicon. These are the characteristics of graphene, the new "dream" material being hailed as a key advanced material of the future.

A study on graphene, which has drawn the highest attention in academia, was published as a paper by the research team of Professor Jung‑hee Lee in the Department of BIN Convergence Engineering, Graduate School, Jeonbuk National University (JBNU), including postdoctoral researcher Tapas Kuila and Master's student Bong‑Joo Jeong. The paper received the Best Paper Award at the 20th International Symposium on Processing and Fabrication of Advanced Materials (PFAM XX), held recently in Hong Kong, drawing significant attention.

At the symposium, they presented a paper titled "Preparation and Characterization of High Performance LLDPE/Graphene Nanocomposites."

This study presents a technique to manufacture nanocomposites by incorporating graphene — the "dream" new material receiving the greatest attention in academia — into thermoplastic polymer resins that deform easily upon heating.

Graphene is a material composed of carbon atoms arranged in a planar structure. It was long thought to be impossible to exist, but recent research by Andre Geim (Netherlands; Nobel Prize in Physics, 2010) demonstrated its existence, and it has since been acclaimed as a future advanced material.

Because graphene has a planar structure and an extremely small thickness, it tends to agglomerate, making it very difficult to mix with other materials when producing composite materials for industrial applications.

Professor Jung‑hee Lee's research team overcame this challenge. First, they chemically modified the graphene surface to enable good dispersion in organic solvents. They then mixed it with an organic solution containing polyethylene — a thermoplastic resin that deforms easily when heated — and succeeded in manufacturing the composite material by drying the mixture under vacuum.

The graphene composites produced in this study showed a remarkable 62% improvement in mechanical properties compared with conventional polyethylene materials with the addition of only 1% graphene, attracting great attention in the relevant academic field.

The newly developed material combines excellent mechanical properties, electrical conductivity, and transparency. It is expected to be widely used in applications such as functional films, coatings, and antistatic materials.