Lasing technique adds graphene to multiple substrates

The latest finding comes from the laboratory of chemist James Tour, who is investigating ways of writing graphene patterns onto food and other materials to embed devices such as conductive identification tags and sensors into products.

The new work, which is reported in ACS Nano, demonstrated that laser-induced graphene can be burned into paper, cardboard, cloth, coal and certain foods.

"Very often, we don't see the advantage of something until we make it available," Tour said in a statement. "Perhaps all food will have a tiny RFID tag that gives you information about where it's been, how long it's been stored, its country and city of origin and the path it took to get to your table."

LIG tags could also be used as sensors that detect E. coli or other microorganisms on food. "They could light up and give you a signal that you don't want to eat this," Tour said. "All that could be placed not on a separate tag on the food, but on the food itself."