Energy conversion and ignition of fluffy graphene by flash light

Graphene has been subjected to widespread attention, and its highly extraordinary properties have led to abundant scientific researches. The present study shows that fluffy graphene can ignite in a fairly short time upon exposure to a conventional flash light, even in an extremely low temperature environment. The ignition process is fierce and multi-points are distributed with temperatures as high as 1840K with few residues. This kind of ignition can be attributed to the graphene nanostructure efficiently converting light to heat and causing a large amount of heat to accumulate within a very short flash time with the temperature quickly exceeding the ignition point. It is further demonstrated that graphene can ignite in an environment as low as about −50 °C. When fluffy graphene was added to extremely lean methane/oxygen/nitrogen mixtures, ignition of the mixtures was successfully triggered by flash light. The ignition characteristics make graphene a promising alternative for ignition fields in harsh environment.