Considering Graphene’s outstanding properties, discoveries, and various scientific breakthroughs for the past years, people’s fascination with it emerges. Examples of these breakthroughs are their applications on rubbers and tires. These applications are superb since there is a growing demand for bicycles and automobiles, especially in the Asian market. Reaching 2.5 billion tires by 2022 is expected for the automobile market.
Even before, graphene-enhanced tires and rubbers have been available in the market. Manufacturers have been using it within tire threads, walls, and inner linings. The addition of graphene results in a lighter tire with better grip and reduced rolling resistance. Since graphene has ultra-high conductivity and thermal conductivity, even a small amount of graphene can increase both rubbers’ and tires’ chemical and mechanical properties. Knowing this situation, manufacturers around the world have been developing graphene-enhanced tires.
Higher surface area and aspect ratio of graphene in rubbers would enhance the dynamic-mechanical properties of rubber compounds. Rubber composites would then have increased abrasion and thermal resistance.
Aside from this, graphene is also known for its strength, flexibility, and sufficient fire retardancy. Thus, increased amounts of graphene would improve both the chemical and mechanical properties of rubbers. It would provide higher strength and flexibility, thus increasing its durability. Also, rubber being flame retardant is such a plus.
These improvements would be useful in the oil-sealing materials, shape memory elastomers, condoms, rubber nanocomposites, nitrile gloves with improved mechanical properties, housing materials, and many more. Using graphene as an additive revolutionized lots of industry.
Lots of people are having trouble maintaining their tires for their automobiles. On average, tires cost between 80$-350$ depending on type, brand, and size. These additional costs may be solved using graphene-enhanced tires.
Lately, graphene-enhanced automotive and bicycle tires are rising from their ashes. Due to graphene’s chemical composition, tires would have improved fuel efficiency because of increased rolling resistance.
Also, due to this developed technology’s strength and flexibility, the tires would have decreased wearability. Decreased wearability would cause the tires to have a longer shelf life. Thus, tires’ lifetime would drastically improve; therefore, the problem of periodically changing tires, which is rather costly, would be nonexistent.
Road handling would be better since there would be a decrease in the braking distance. Just like with rubber, tires would also have an increase in their abrasion and cut resistance. Gratomic conducted a test run using graphene-enhanced tires in the UK. The results showed a 30% increase in wear resistance compared to existing tires, thus increasing the mileage by 30%.
In today’s world, there is no doubt that advancement is seen and applied in every industry. One of the significant advances in terms of nanomaterials is graphene. It has a remarkable planar structure and outstanding electrical, mechanical, and optical properties. The material gained a great deal of attention not only in its exceptional characteristics but also in potential development opportunities in a wide variety of technologies and industries.
Graphene provides incredibly high- conductivity and thermal conductivity. Presently, graphene is commercially available on different products. One of which is tyres. All bicycle manufacturers are constantly striving to seize for the next breakthrough in components. They focus on developing a lighter, stiffer, more effective, more comfortable, and advanced bike.
For several years now, graphene-enhanced tyres have been widely available for bicycles and cars, particularly in the Asian market. By incorporating layers of graphene into the tyres, companies have developed new and improved tyres. In almost every aspect, these tires have proved to be superior. Apart from the fact that these tyres are lighter than regular tyres, they are also longer-lasting and more puncture-resistant.
Graphene-increased tyres dissipate heat more effectively. It is stiffer when riding straight for increased rolling resistance. Thus, due to the graphene honeycomb pattern, it softens in return for a more excellent grip.
Knowing fully well that the technology of graphene-enhanced rubbers and tires is booming in the market, different companies have been conducting their studies and developments in this field.
Right now, utilizing graphene may achieve the enhancement of rubbers and tires. It’s about time that the industry will use the outstanding properties of Graphene. With the improvements mentioned earlier, graphene-enhanced rubber and tires would revolutionize the world of rubbers and automobiles.
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