A student from the Naval Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (Murcia) has developed a new plastic based on graphene, which seeks to extend this material to shipbuilding to achieve "unsinkable" ships that save fuel and do not pollute the environment

Israel Gago, a student at the Naval and Ocean Engineering School, will present the applications for this revolutionary material at the I+D National Congress on defense and security, to be held from 19 to 20 November at the Military Naval School in Marin, Pontevedra.

This technology, consisting of doped graphene from a conventional resin, is designed for large ships as well as for sailing boats, yachts and small fishing boats. In fact, the University is studying patenting this product which is recyclable, immune to both the corrosion and the adhesion of marine life as well as being light enough to float permanently.

In the case of megaships, they propose adding graphene to the hull plating to reduce by about 50% its drag, allowing ships to save energy when travelling at sea and, therefore, reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition, the project opted to introduce the graphene --composed of pure graphene carbon with an atom of thickness 3mm – in smaller boats such as sailing and fishing boats or yachts.

The patent describes a process capable of uniformly disperse such a flexible, durable and lightweight material as graphene and also manufacture thin films made of this "megaplastic", that have a transparency beyond 95% and a roughness of only 0.8 microns, almost 200 times less than the best marine painting available today.

(Source: Faro de Vigo)