material we know and love… graphene. While this material is mostly comprised of air,

我們熟悉和喜愛的材料......石墨烯。雖然這種材料主要由空氣組成。

it also boasts graphene-like properties that make it both super strong and electrically

它還擁有類似石墨烯的特性，使其具有超強的強度和電氣性能。

conductive. This means that the aerogel you're looking at could completely revolutionize

導電性。這意味著你所看到的氣凝膠可以徹底改變

material sciences—even blazing a trail for in-space manufacturing. Which is why scientists

材料科學--甚至為空間製造開闢了一條道路。這就是為什麼科學家們

are now looking to synthesize this new material on the International Space Station. Because

現在正尋求在國際空間站上合成這種新材料。因為

in the absence of gravity… strange things can happen.

在沒有重力的情況下......奇怪的事情會發生。

Microgravity just unlocks a completely new area of material science.

微重力只是打開了材料科學的一個全新領域。

It's a brand new knob that we've never had

這是一個全新的旋鈕，我們從未有過的。

access to before. You could potentially have new properties. We might uncover new types of underlying physics.

之前的訪問。你可能會有新的屬性。我們可能會發現新類型的基礎物理學。

These scientists are working on an experiment to go onboard the ISS, that if successful,

這些科學家正在研究一項將登上國際空間站的實驗，如果成功的話。

could have huge impacts on in-space manufacturing... and future deep space missions.

可能對空間製造和未來的深空任務產生巨大影響。

So what exactly makes graphene aerogel so special? To understand that, we

那麼到底是什麼讓石墨烯氣凝膠如此特別？為了瞭解這一點，我們

have to look at its component parts—starting with graphene. Graphene is composed of the

必須看一下它的組成部分--從石墨烯開始。石墨烯是由以下部分組成的

element carbon and it's actually just a single atomic layer of carbon in a honeycomb lattice.

元素碳，它實際上只是蜂窩狀晶格中的一個碳原子層。

Graphene is an amazing material because it is strong— stronger than steel. It's also

石墨烯是一種神奇的材料，因為它很強--比鋼鐵還強。它也是

electrically conductive, so carriers can transport within graphene at really fast speeds.

導電性，是以載流子可以在石墨烯內以非常快的速度傳輸。

It has applications in energy storage, like batteries or super capacitors.

它在能源儲存方面有應用，如電池或超級電容。

There's been a ton of hype around graphene, with many calling it a “wonder material.”

圍繞石墨烯已經有了大量的炒作，許多人稱其為 "神奇材料"。

And after years of R&D, we're just starting to see it leave the lab. But it's not the

經過多年的研發，我們剛剛開始看到它離開實驗室。但這並不是

only material getting hype. There's also aerogel. Aerogels are a class of materials

唯一被炒作的材料。還有氣凝膠。氣凝膠是一類材料

that can be made out of pretty much anything. Like sculptures can be made out of stone or

可以用幾乎任何東西做成的。像雕塑可以用石頭或其他材料製成。

clay, and very similarly, aerogels can be made out of these different raw materials.

粘土，而非常類似的是，氣凝膠可以由這些不同的原材料製成。

Which opens the door to nearly limitless possibilities. Aerogels are almost completely made out of

這為幾乎無限的可能性打開了大門。氣凝膠幾乎完全由

air. And are considered one of the lightest solid materials ever known. The most popular

空氣。並被認為是迄今所知的最輕的固體材料之一。最受歡迎的

type of aerogel is silica based. Silica aerogels have been used by NASA in the Stardust mission.

氣凝膠的類型是以硅石為基礎的。硅氣凝膠已被美國宇航局用於星塵任務。

NASA utilized this material because it was lightweight and also had a porous structure

美國宇航局利用這種材料，因為它很輕，也有多孔結構。

such that they can capture this space dust material.

以至於它們可以捕獲這種空間塵埃物質。

Silica aerogels have also been used as insulation on NASA's Mars rovers... and are even being

硅氣凝膠還被用作美國宇航局火星車的絕緣材料......甚至被用於

used as insulation for thinner, warmer outerwear here on Earth. This material tends to get

在地球上，它被用作更薄、更溫暖的外衣的隔熱材料。這種材料往往會被

the most attention, and sometimes gets mistaken as the one and only aerogel. But aerogels

最受關注，有時被誤認為是唯一的氣凝膠。但是氣凝膠

can also be made out of metals, polymers, and of course graphene... which brings us

也可以由金屬、聚合物，當然還有石墨烯製成......這給我們帶來了

to the XLab. In the XLab—the EXtreme Environment Microsystems Laboratory—we make tiny but

到XLab。在XLab--極端環境微系統實驗室--我們製作了微小的、但卻能讓人感到舒適的產品。

tough electronics and materials. Like graphene aerogel, which has the super strength and

堅韌的電子和材料。像石墨烯氣凝膠，它具有超強的強度和

electrical conductivity of graphene, in the form of a light aerogel. There's two main

石墨烯的導電性，以輕質氣凝膠的形式。有兩個主要

steps in creating graphene aerogel. The first is to create the graphene hydrogel. And so,

創建石墨烯氣凝膠的步驟。首先是創建石墨烯水凝膠。於是乎。

you start with graphene oxide flakes and you disperse those in an aqueous solution. And

你從氧化石墨烯薄片開始，將其分散在水溶液中。而且

then once you have your graphene oxide dispersion, you can load that into a furnace and heat

一旦你有了氧化石墨烯的分散體，你就可以把它裝進爐子里加熱。

that to about 200 degrees Celsius. And that will form your hydrogel. It's honestly exactly

將其加熱至約200攝氏度。而這將形成你的水凝膠。說實話，這正是

like making Jell-O where you put in the powder and then you add the hot water and you let

就像製作Jell-O一樣，你把粉末放入其中，然後加入熱水，然後讓

it cool and you have a Jell-O. And so, a hydrogel is the graphene Jell-O. And then, the second

它冷卻後，你就有了一個果凍。是以，水凝膠就是石墨烯果凍。然後，第二個

part is taking away the liquid from that and leaving just air in the structure. Making

這一部分是把液體拿走，在結構中只留下空氣。製作

a graphene aerogel is special because of its two-dimensional nature.  And so making a graphene

石墨烯氣凝膠的特殊之處在於其二維性質。 是以，製作一個石墨烯

aerogel allows us to study the way two-dimensional flakes or a sheet interact with each other

氣凝膠使我們能夠研究二維片狀物或片狀物之間的相互作用方式。

when we bind them together. And the atomic structure of a material determines its different

當我們把它們結合在一起時。而一種材料的原子結構決定了其不同的

properties. Which is why--despite the fact that diamonds, pencil lead, and graphene are

屬性。這就是為什麼--儘管鑽石、鉛筆芯和石墨烯都是

all made entirely out of carbon--they each have very different characteristics. And then

它們都是完全由碳構成的--它們各自有非常不同的特性。然後

there's gravity. Scientists are eager to solve the mystery of how the structure of graphene aerogels

有重力。科學家們渴望解開石墨烯氣凝膠的結構之謎

will behave in microgravity. To find out, Debbie's team is preparing to send a payload

在微重力條件下的表現。為了找到答案，黛比的團隊正準備發送一個有效載荷

to the ISS with all the necessary components to make graphene aerogel in space -- basically

攜帶所有必要的組件到國際空間站，以便在太空中製造石墨烯氣凝膠 -- 基本上是

using the same two-step process outlined earlier. The first step, making the hydrogel, is actually

使用前面概述的相同的兩步過程。第一步，製作水凝膠，實際上是

the one we're interested in for the space station. When you're dealing with liquid to

我們對空間站感興趣的那個。當你在處理液體到

solid phase transitions, there are concerns you have to worry about, especially with dispersion

固體相變，有一些你必須擔心的問題，特別是在分散方面。

with the powder, because gravity is going to pull those down and that creates an anisotropic,

因為重力會把這些東西拉下來，這就造成了各向異性。

or unevenly distributed graphene hydrogel, which then gives you an unevenly distributed

或不均勻分佈的石墨烯水凝膠，然後給你一個不均勻分佈的

graphene aerogel. And that, in turn, affects the properties, so you could have with that

石墨烯氣凝膠。而這反過來又會影響其特性，所以你可以用它來進行

less electrical connectivity, lower absorption. The International Space Station is, of course,

較少的電氣連接，較低的吸收。當然，國際空間站是。

in outer space. So gravity's effects are minimized. The flakes are free to float around

在外太空。是以，重力的影響被最小化了。片狀物可以自由地漂浮在空中

homogeneously, and when we perform the reduction step in the furnace on the space station,

當我們在空間站的爐子裡進行還原步驟時，就會出現均勻一致的情況。

that will give us a more uniform macro structure. Synthesizing graphene aerogels in a microgravity

這將為我們提供一個更均勻的宏觀結構。在微重力條件下合成石墨烯氣凝膠

environment is really exciting because it can potentially advance many of our engineering

環境確實令人振奮，因為它有可能推進我們的許多工程項目。

applications such as the development of batteries, the development of thermally insulating materials,

應用，如電池的開發，熱絕緣材料的開發。

and also sensor materials. We are currently about one year into the project and so we

還有傳感器材料。目前，我們的項目已經進行了一年左右，所以我們

are hoping, fingers crossed, to launch our payload within the next year. Once we get

我們希望，手指交叉，在明年發射我們的有效載荷。一旦我們得到

the payload back, we hope to learn, number one, what is the mesostructure of a microgravity

我們希望瞭解，第一，微重力的中間結構是什麼？

synthesized aerogel? So structurally, what does it look like? Is it different from an

合成的氣凝膠？那麼從結構上看，它是什麼樣子的？它是否有別於

Earth-based material? We plan on measuring the mechanical properties, the thermal properties

地基材料？我們計劃測量機械性能，熱性能

and the electrical properties of the aerogels and compare the Earth-based properties to

和氣凝膠的電學特性，並將基於地球的特性與基於氣凝膠的特性進行比較。

the microgravity-based properties. Equipped with this knowledge, if researchers can crack

基於微重力的特性。掌握了這些知識後，如果研究人員能夠破解

how to manufacture graphene aerogels in microgravity, then the way we explore space could change

如何在微重力下製造石墨烯氣凝膠，那麼我們探索太空的方式可能會改變

completely. The idea is to take raw materials, bring it up to the space environment, build

完全是這樣。這個想法是採取原材料，把它帶到空間環境中，建造

what you need, and then deploy it from space. So that's the big vision there. While we're

你需要什麼，然後從太空中部署它。所以這就是那裡的大願景。當我們在

not at that point yet, this graphene aerogel experiment is moving us towards that possible

還沒有到那個地步，這個石墨烯氣凝膠實驗正使我們朝著那個可能的方向前進。

future. So I think some of the first demonstrations and first validations of our work could happen

未來。是以，我認為我們工作的一些首次演示和首次驗證可能會發生

within the next 5 to 10 years. The thought that a new era of materials science is just

在未來5到10年內。認為材料科學的新時代就在眼前

around the corner,  which could in turn herald a new era of human space exploration, is a

這可能反過來預示著人類太空探索的新時代。

thrilling concept for Debbie and Jessica.

對黛比和傑西卡來說，這是一個激動人心的概念。

It's just cool, it's the new frontier, it's just unexplored, it's

它只是很酷，它是新的邊疆，它只是未開發的，它是

the future. When I take a step back and think about the potential to do these experiments

的未來。當我退一步想一想做這些實驗的潛力時

in space, it's really fascinating and exciting and I think the people I work with are really excited too. 

在太空中，這真的很令人著迷和興奮，我認為和我一起工作的人也非常興奮。