Original article (in Bosnian) was published on 13/01/2022
Andreas Noack’s unsubstantiated claims about the alleged discovery of graphene hydroxide in vaccines against Covid-19 are viral on social media. His “findings” were also the reason for creating a broad conspiracy theory about his alleged murder. None of this, however, is true.
The complex conspiracy theory about the alleged murder of the German chemist Andreas Noack due to his alleged discovery related to graphene in vaccines is viral on social networks and some websites. According to “conspiracy” allegations, Noack reportedly found that Covid-19 vaccines contain “graphene hydroxide particles”, which he described as “nano-sized razors”.
On November 23, 2021, Andreas Noack posted on his Telegram account a 17-minute video claiming the alleged existence of graphene hydroxide in Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccines. We found the first publication of this video with an inserted translation into our language on the profile of Milan Zec on November 30, 2021.
In the video, Noack refers to the “discoveries” of Pablo Campra Madrid from the University of Almeria, incorrectly labeled as Paolo Campra. According to the video, Campra Madrid “studied vaccines for the presence of graphene oxide using Micro-Raman spectroscopy”. Raskrinkavanje has already written about the unfounded claims of Campra Madrid in an analysis from July 2021, which you can read here.
At the 27th second of the recording, Noack states that “it turned out not to be graphene oxide but rather graphene hydroxide”, without specifying how it “turned out”, who “found” it, that is, without citing any sources or evidence. Given that Noack refers to Campra Madrid in several other places, citing constructions such as “he researched”, it is unclear whether he talks about this research, to which he gives a new interpretation, claiming that the conclusion is not the alleged existence of graphene oxide, but the existence of graphene hydroxide. If this is not the case, and if Noack conducted his research or refers to someone else, no information about it is presented or mentioned.
In the video, Noack also claims to be an “active carbon specialist” who “converted graphene oxide to graphene hydroxide” in his doctoral dissertation. Noack compares the “nano structures” allegedly found in vaccines to razors that are “biodegradable” and implicitly, when talking about vaccination, claims that it is “Russian roulette”. Mentioning the alleged effects of “razors” injected with vaccines, Noack claims that they will “do more damage if the blood flows faster”, thus “explaining” the alleged increased mortality in athletes. Noack declares these “razors” “responsible” for the alleged occurrence of cardiovascular diseases, heart attacks and strokes after vaccination.
As a chemist, if you insert this in the blood, you know you’re a killer.
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These people had bad luck in Russian roulette. Probably a vein struck by a needle.
What are the facts?
We asked professor Sanjin Gutic, Doctor of Physical Chemistry and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Science, University of Sarajevo, and Dalibor Karacic, Master of Chemical Sciences, chemistry teacher and doctoral student in the field of physical chemistry of materials and electrochemistry at the Faculty of Physical Chemistry, University of Belgrade. As they explained, the simplest correct answer to the question of what graphene hydroxide actually is would be: nothing.
Graphene hydroxide does not exist. Slightly better connoisseurs of chemistry (a category to which Noack should also belong) know that the reason for this lies in the impossibility of separating the OH group, covalently attached to the C atom (in this case from the graphene structure), in the form of OH ions.
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An “expert on carbon materials”, as Noack calls himself, should know that graphene hydroxide does not exist in theory or practice, and that (micro) Raman spectroscopy cannot be used to distinguish functional groups on graphene materials.
When asked what graphene hydroxide is used for and whether the claim that it is in vaccines makes sense, Gutic and Karacic answered:
Since it does not exist, it is of no use and is not in the Covid-19 vaccine. On the other hand, graphene oxide is a common name for a group of materials based on the graphene structure to which oxygen functional groups are attached, namely epoxy (-O-), which Andreas Noack probably means when he says “double-bound oxygen” and hydroxyl (-OH) at the graphene level, as well as carboxyl (-COOH) and phenolic (R-OH) at the edges of the graphene level. Using the name “graphene hydroxide”, Andreas Noack shows an elementary ignorance of the science of graphene materials, which is further expressed in the statement that “in graphene oxide you have double-bound oxygen, and in graphene hydroxide you have OH group”.
Thus, graphene oxide can be called a material containing any oxygen-containing functional group, as well as any combination of two or more oxygen-containing groups, including epoxy (“double-bonded oxygen”) and OH group.
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Noack uses the analogy that everything that contains the OH group is hydroxide, which further disqualifies him as a person whose views are relevant. High school chemistry includes knowledge on compounds that contain the OH group, and can in no way be considered hydroxides, since hydroxides, also known as bases or alkalis, are compounds that in aqueous solution can give a free, negatively charged ion consisting of one atom of oxygen and one hydrogen atom: OH- or hydroxide ion. On the other hand, a large number of compounds possessing the OH group do not belong to hydroxides, since such an OH group cannot be released in the form of ions. Examples of compounds containing an OH group, other than hydroxides, are sulfuric, nitric and phosphoric acid, all organic (carboxylic) acids, all alcohols, as well as phenols. Graphene oxide also falls into this category, since the OH groups attached to the graphene structure are actually attached directly to the carbon atom, which is the case with organic acids, alcohols and phenols.
Thus, claims that graphene hydroxide is found in vaccines have no basis in reality. The same was confirmed to the AFP Fact Platform by a researcher at the Paul Pascal Research Center, Philippe Poulin, who specializes in graphene. The AFP analysis from December 22, 2021, states the following:
“‘Graphene hydroxide’ is a name that means nothing. In the scientific community, we prefer to use the generic name ‘graphene oxide’,” he explained to AFP on December 13, 2021.
‘Graphene hydroxide’ is not known as a graphene derivative: a search of a website containing an index of scientific papers, the Web of Science, gives very few headlines about structures close to graphene oxide. On the other hand, graphene oxide (GO) and its reduced Forms (RGOs) are very well known and are easily obtained from graffiti,” explains Stéphane Berciaud, a researcher at the Institute of Physics and Chemistry of Materials in Strasbourg – a joint project of the University of Strasbourg and CNRS.
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In any case, the molecule that Noack drew in his video does not match graphene, says Philippe Poulenc, adding that “we would not use the term graphene oxide for what it shows on the board. It is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecule”.
The claims about the existence of graphene oxide in vaccines are equally unfounded. As for the claims suggesting that the structures allegedly found in vaccines behave like “razors”, Gutic and Karacic said:
The comparison of the graphene structure and the razor is actually a nail in the ignorant coffin of Andreas Noack. A razor is a macroscopic object made of steel, which is capable of causing macroscopic tissue damage. Graphene or graphene oxide nanostructure is a (sub) microscopic object that can enter living cells through endocytosis. The entry of such an object into cells, even in the most clumsy simplification, cannot be identified with a razor that is driven into meat, since the cell is able to “swallow” molecules of different sizes and shapes, while the dimensions and shape of graphene and graphene oxide do not represent any special case.
You can read a detailed analysis of the claims made in the video by Noack, whose authors are Gutic and Karacic, here. In their text, which they submitted to Raskrinkavanje in response to the inquiry, they prove the factual unfoundedness of several chemistry-related claims Noack makes.
Therefore, the claim that graphene hydroxide is found in vaccines against Covid-19 is not true. Given the facts, we evaluate the claims from the video of Andreas Noack as fake news and pseudoscience.
As for the allegations about the alleged murder of Andreas Noack, Raskrinkavanje will deal with it in their next analysis.