University of Manchester - Page 16

The National Graphene Institute at The University of Manchester has been officially opened, in an opening ceremony that included dignitaries, scientists and business leaders.

The institute received almost £40 million of government support as part of the wider £90 million UK investment in graphene and will enable researchers and industry to work together on a huge variety of graphene-related potential revolutionary applications.

In November 2014, James Baker, business director at the UK's National Graphene Institute (NGI), declared a LED light factory about to be opened in Manchester by an unnamed company, in which graphene will be used to dissipate heat.

Now, in a statement given at the Insider's Property Investment Forum in London, Baker mentioned that graphene lightbulbs will be available for purchase in B&Q within the next six months. While Baker did not offer any additional details regarding the identity of the supplier or even confirmed that this product will come from the afformentioned factory, this is still a very interesting mention.

Scientists at the University of Manchester found that graphene oxide may act as an anti-cancer agent that selectively targets cancer stem cells (CSCs). In combination with existing treatments, this could eventually lead to tumor shrinkage as well as preventing the spread of cancer and its recurrence after treatment.

The team prepared a variety of graphene oxide formulations for testing against six different cancer types - breast, pancreatic, lung, brain, ovarian and prostate. The flakes inhibited the formation of tumor sphere formation in all six types, suggesting that graphene oxide can be effective across a large number of different cancers, by blocking processes which take place at the surface of the cells. The researchers suggest that this may deliver a better overall clinical outcome when used in combination with conventional cancer treatments.

The University of Manchester's National Graphene Institute recently purchased plasma etch equipment and deposition systems from Oxford Instruments.

These tools (PlasmaPro^® PECVD and ICP-CVD deposition tools and PlasmaPro ICP etch tools) are to facilitate graphene and 2D materials' processing, and enable the fabrication of tailored substrates for graphene such as SiN membranes which are useful for both fundamental and applied research on graphene and 2D materials.

Researchers at the University of Manchester (led by Novoselov, one of the original isolators of graphene and Nobel winner) and University of Sheffield have developed a prototype of a semi-transparent graphene-based LED device that could lay the foundation for flexible screens, to be used in next-gen mobile phones, tablets and TVs. This extremely thin display (about 10-40 atoms thick) was created using sandwiched "heterostructures" and emits a sheet of light across its entire surface.

The 2D LED comprises of metallic graphene, hexagonal boron nitride and various semiconducting monolayers. This prototype shows that graphene (combined with other flexible 2D materials) is not just limited to simple electronic displays, but could be exploited to create light emitting devices that are thin, flexible, semi-transparent and intrinsically bright.

The official opening of the University of Manchester's National Graphene Institute will be marked by a special piece of music, dedicated to graphene.

A young artist called Sara Lowes was granted a £12,000 commission to compose a unique theme that will be written especially for the material. She spent time at the University of Manchester in order to get to know the material and draw inspiration to help her with the creative process.

In November 2014, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the University of Manchester signed an agreement to collaborate in realizing graphene's potential and work on the development of graphene metrology, characterization and standards.

Now, the NPL researchers are working on characterization techniques that can be used in real time on large amounts of graphene. One such technique is microwave measurement, where a graphene film is placed in a microwave field and disturbs the field. The extent of the disturbance indicates the sheet resistance and conductivity.

Here are pictures of the University of Manchester's National Graphene Institute (NGI), currently under contruction, taken about a month ago. The pictures were taken by BAM Construction and engineering, involved in NGI construction. The buildings are evidently progressing nicely and look great!