In addition, it is highly flexible, transparent, and acts as an effective barrier against gases and liquids. Referred to as a \u201cmiracle material,\u201d<\/a> it was first isolated in 2004 by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at the University of Manchester, UK. <\/p>\n Ever since its discovery, graphene has become a crucial material in electronics and energy storage<\/a>. One method for producing turbostratic graphene today is known as \u201cflash Joule heating.\u201d <\/p>\n During this process, an electrical current rapidly heats carbon-based materials<\/a> to temperatures of approximately 3,600 to 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 to 3,000 degrees Celsius). <\/p>\n In the late 19th century, however, Edison relied on carbon-based filaments, which were often made from natural materials such as Japanese bamboo, rather than the tungsten used in modern incandescent bulbs.<\/p>\n As electricity passed through these filaments, electrical resistance caused rapid heating that produced light. The team believes these conditions closely mirror modern flash Joule heating and may have been enough to generate graphene.<\/p>\n Carbon filament discovery<\/p>\n Lucas Eddy, a former Rice graduate and the paper\u2019s first author, was trying to find the simplest equipment for mass-producing graphene when he remembered that early light bulbs often used carbon-based filaments.<\/p>\n \u201cI was developing ways to mass produce graphene with readily available and affordable materials,\u201d Eddy said. \u201cI was looking at everything from arc welders, which were more efficient than anything I\u2019d ever built, to lightning-struck trees, which were complete dead ends,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n To test the hypothesis, the researchers sourced artisan-made Edison-style bulbs from a small art store in New York City that closely matched the specifications from the original 1879 patent<\/a>.<\/p>\n The researchers then connected the bulbs to a 110-volt (V) direct current power supply, based on the original setup, and powered them for roughly 20 seconds. They noted that longer exposure times can lead to graphite formation.<\/p>\n After the tests, the scientists<\/a> used optical microscopy and found that the filament surface had changed from dark gray to a silvery, metallic appearance. They then used Raman spectroscopy, a laser-based analytical technique that identifies materials by analyzing their atomic-level signatures.<\/p>\n The results confirmed the presence of turbostratic graphene within portions of the filament. While there is no way to determine whether graphene persisted in Edison\u2019s original experiments, the findings suggest it may have formed briefly long before its discovery.<\/p>\n \u201cFinding that he could have produced graphene inspires curiosity about what other information lies buried in historical experiments,\u201d Tour concluded in a press release<\/a>. The study has been published<\/a> in the journal ACS Nano.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers in the US have uncovered evidence suggesting that Thomas Edison may have accidentally produced graphene over a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[136606,989,373,85,1720,990,46,136607,370,2513,141,116483],"class_list":{"0":"post-258651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-accidental-scientific-discovery","9":"tag-energy-amp-environment","10":"tag-graphene","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-innovation","13":"tag-inventions-and-machines","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-light-bulb","16":"tag-physics","17":"tag-rice-university","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-thomas-edison"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Z3_fa32ab.jpg\" "\\"Edison\u2019s")
James Tour, PhD, T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Chemistry at Rice University.
Credit: Jeff Fitlow \/ Rice University<\/a><\/p>\n