National Coffee Day is today! Here’s a very advanced apparatus resembling a coffee machine (to some of us at least). It’s used to analyze different materials – let’s say… coffee, or something as black as coffee – that is graphene! This apparatus, operated by Adrian Racki and owned by Graphene and Composites Research Group, is a highly specialized analyzer which enables detection and estimation of the amount of Oxygen in tested materials.

This is of special importance regarding the primary field of the Group`s scientific activities – the production of high-quality flake graphene materials, namely G-Flake®. Did you know that the amount of Oxygen is one of the key parameters differing graphene oxide (GO) from reduced graphene oxide (RGO)?

Hence its precise determination is very significant for our scientists as both GO and RGO have different properties: for instance, GO is easy to modify and gets easily attached to the surface of other materials, while RGO conducts heat and electric charge better than GO.

It should be noted that this very machine is part of a bigger experimental setup enabling estimation of yet other elements, such as Sulphur, Hydrogen, Carbon, and Nitrogen.