Nobel-winning tech at heart of rubber band improvements
HOT SPRINGS, ARK. — While it may seem a stretch, an Arkansas company and a university in southeastern England want to use Nobel Prizewinning technology to build a better rubber band.
The partnership between Alliance Rubber and the University of Sussex is one of many eyeing graphene for its electrical and thermal properties. Projects underway around the world include using graphene to track sun exposure, wick heat out of athletic shoes and create bandages that signal when they should be changed.
A 95-year-old rubber company sees its opportunity in health care and agriculture.
"We've had a history of being an innovator, as much as you can be an innovator in the world of rubber bands," said Jason Risner, Alliance's director of business strategy.
Hot Springs-based Alliance makes more than 15 million pounds of rubber bands a year. Some are brightly dyed, others are scented and some were embossed long before the "Livestrong" bracelet. A company history says that, early on, the company's founder persuaded the Tulsa World to use rubber bands to keep newspapers intact on a windy day.
Graphene, an ultrathin sheet of graphite, has far greater potential.
"There's this perfect sheet of material. It's more conductive than copper," and, for its size, "it's the toughest material ever produced," said Alan Dalton, a professor of experimental physics at the University of Sussex. The material is virtually transparent, too, which makes it a potential replacement for indium tin oxide currently used on smartphone screens.
Graphene is considered the first stable twodimensional material. A pair of scientists at the University of Manchester won the Nobel Prize in physics after isolating graphene flakes in 2004 by applying a piece of Scotch tape to a block of graphite and pulling off material a million times thinner than a human hair.