The broad applicability and potential of 2D Materials 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 the research into this class of materials from the lab into real-world solutions.

For example, 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 identified graphene in its focus on new materials development for becoming one of the leading sectors of the national economy.

Closer to home, in the UK Manchester is an epicentre of 2D Material 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 Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) brings together specialist organisations from around the world to share knowledge and identify opportunities to advance the use of 2D Materials. Mewburn Ellis is an affiliate partner of GEIC, offering IP support and advice to the partner companies working there to develop products and knowledge leveraging the remarkable properties of graphene and other 2D materials.

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 around $150m in 2020. But massive and ground-breaking applications are being and will be developed. Growth towards a market size of $1bn is predicted for the next 5-10 years by many sources. This only considers graphene, too – with other 2D Materials included, the market size has the potential for even more impressive and rapid growth. Graphene, as well as many of the other 2D Materials, has been discovered by scientific investigation rather than being developed for a particular use. So right now, we are in a phase of experimentation and translation: form “R” to “D”. 2D Materials are being applied from toothpaste to aircraft. We are seeing the first jumps out of the laboratory into the real world, and the rate of transition is accelerating. Graphene in particular is gradually starting to make its mark, with more and more manufacturers recognising the advantages it can bring. It is now simply a question of which directions development takes and how their times to market vary.

For example 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 is an early win, its advantages of lightness and strength providing clear economic gains for manufacturers. In these types of structural application, there will be fewer concerns about achieving optimum purity. Other areas in which we are starting to see faster uptake of graphene are 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. Nevertheless we are already seeing new classes of materials, and new processes, which enable 2D Materials to be applied in such fields.

As 2D Materials become better known, and more and more investigations into theirs uses are conducted, it is clear that product supply has the potential to be a major sticking point. We shall see how well processing scale up can keep in pace with demand, so that there is no prohibitive cost associated with the use of these fascinating materials.

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