Spotlight on Graphene

The researchers, who peeled off layers of graphite with Scotch Tape to extract the single-atom thick lattice of carbon atoms, have been knighted and received Nobel Prizes as a result of this groundbreaking research. The remarkable properties of graphene are now well-known and much discussed.

It is one million times thinner than paper
It is the ‘strongest material known to man’
It is exceptionally thermally and electrically conductive and tuneable
It is flexible (it can extend to 20% of its original length if stretched)
It is impermeable to certain molecules
It is transparent

Small wonder then that over the past decade, its potential has been the subject of a spiralling number of academic papers - and a fair amount of media hype.

The broad applicability and potential of graphene has been taken up by national and international bodies. Across the world, large consortia and research centres have been formed with the aim of translating graphene research from the lab into real-world solutions.

In 2013, Europe started its biggest ever research initiative, creating the Graphene Flagship to bring academia and industry together to perform coordinated research, with a budget of €1bn over ten years. In 2014 the National University of Singapore created its Centre for Advanced 2D Materials. China's 13th Five-Year Plan for 2016-2020 specifically identifies graphene in its focus on new materials development for becoming one of the leading sectors of the national economy.

In the UK, Manchester is an epicentre of graphene development. The National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester offers a hub for academics, researchers and industrial partners to work together on graphene applications. Research teams at the NGI have collaborated with McLaren to develop the world’s lightest watch and the University’s Professor of Materials Physics Rahul Nair, has demonstrated that graphene oxide has the potential to be used to filter water. The University’s brand new Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) brings together specialist organisations from around the world to share knowledge and identify opportunities to advance the use of the material. Mewburn Ellis is an affiliate partner of GEIC, as are organisations such as the US National Graphene Association.

A graphene ecosystem is developing in Manchester. A district - “Graphene City” - will be, according to Luke Georghiou, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester, “built around the people who will form the world’s first labour market to be highly skilled in 2D materials. Large firms will want to locate where they can access skills and world-class collaborators. Start-up companies and SMEs will face lower risks when they know they can recruit the people they need."

The current market is modest in size; the global graphene industry was estimated to be worth $200m in 2018. But massive and groundbreaking applications will be developed. This is a material that has been discovered by scientific investigation; it has not been developed for a particular use. So right now, we are in the phase of experimentation. It is being applied from toothpaste to aircraft. It has started to make jumps out of the laboratory into the real world. Graphene is gradually starting to make its mark – and the rate at which it is doing so is accelerating. It is simply a question of which initial directions it takes and how the times to market vary.

There are novel graphene-based devices across a range of fields including photonics, optoelectronics, energy storage and conversion, flexible electronics, sensors, composites and coatings and biomedical applications. Its use in composite materials for the automotive and aerospace sectors would appear to be an early win for graphene. Its advantages of lightness and strength provide clear economic gains for manufacturers; and in this structural application, there will be fewer concerns about achieving optimum purity. Other areas in which we could see faster uptake of graphene will be in fields such as anticorrosive paint or coatings, and energy storage.

On the other hand, in those applications where there is a premium on the material’s purity and consistency - such as high-end computing and high-frequency electronics – commercialisation may seem further away.