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Researchers from the Graphene Flagship, which is a Future and Emerging Technology Flagship by the European Commission, recently discovered a new application potential for graphene: mechanical pixels.

The flagship has a budget of roughly 1 billion and it combines the efforts of at least 150 academic and industrial researchers from around the world, along with current innovative research of this material on an unprecedented scale. It is one of Europe's biggest research initiatives ever conducted.  They are seeking to bring graphene out of the lab and into our everyday lives and they want to do it within the next ten years if possible. 

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Researchers recently discovered that by applying a pressure difference across the membrane of the graphene, that the perceived color was able to be shifted from red to blue. The researchers therefore suggest that this could be utilized for mechanical colored pixels in e-readers, as well as with low-powered screens. The findings from the study were recently published in the journal *Nano Letters*. 

It has been found that the graphene membranes enclose air inside of the cavities, and when it comes to the position of those membranes, it is something that can be readily adjusted by applying pressure differently between the inside and the outside. In other words, when the membranes are closer to the silicon, it was found that they would appear blue, and when they were pushed away it would instead appear red in color. Researchers attribute the color difference to interference between light waves that are coming from the bottom of the cavity, and the membrane located on top. 

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Millions of dollars are currently being funneled towards graphene-related research and the commercialization of this material. This material has many extraordinary properties and is said to be roughly 100 times stronger than steel. It can also conduct heat and electricity and is relatively transparent to the naked eye. Scientists have been familiar with graphene for quite some time but we can see that funding is really starting to increase surrounding research into this area. The graphene market was said to be around $9 million for 2012 and by 2022 it's estimated to grow to roughly $115 million or more. 

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Researchers suggest that by replacing traditional silicon materials in current display tech items, that using graphene would drastically improve the performance of the device. For now, the researchers say that future investigation for them now consists of trying to use electricity in order to control the color of those membranes and they hope to have established a screen prototype by 2017. 

Pics:
Shutterstock
Delft University of Technology 
Extreme Tech
Sources:
http://graphene-flagship.eu/project/Pages/About-Graphene-Flagship.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene
http://phys.org/news/2016-11-graphene-templates-metal-oxide-nanostructures.html
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161101006012/en/Global-Graphene-Battery-Market-Worth-USD-115
http://phys.org/news/2016-11-graphene-balloons.html