University of Manchester - Page 17

2-DTech, British maker and supplier of 2D materials and University of Manchester spin-off, announced cooperation with Australian solar technology company Dyesol to develop graphene-enhanced solid state dye-sensitized photovoltaic cells. This project follows the £98,000 grant from InnovateUK that 2-DTech received in order to to partner up with Dyesol to explore solid state dye-sensitized solar cells.

Such thin film solar cells are relatively inexpensive to make and have numerous deployment advantages, but their use is hindered by lower power conversion efficiency and shorter operational lifespans than crystalline silicon PV cells. This project aims to explore the possibility of incorporating graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) within the perovskite charge collecting regions of solid-state dye-sensitised solar cells so that efficiency levels can be boosted.

The University of Manchester's Graphene Department created a series of new videos that show the uses of Graphene, with an emphasis placed on graphene membranes. This is the first of the series, with more to come.

The British government has given the go-ahead to a new £235m science research center called the Sir Henry Royce Institue for Advanced Materials Research and Innovation in Manchester, which will also have satellite branches in Leeds, Liverpool, London, Cambridge, Oxford and Sheffield.

The center will investigate the rapidly growing field of materials science across a range of disciplines including engineering, nanotechnology and chemistry. It is meant to complement the soon-to-be-opened National Graphene Institute (NGI), as well as the planned £60m Graphene Engineering Innovation Center (GEIC).

The UK's National Graphene Institute (NGI), to be opened in March 2015, teams up with yet another company, Morgan Advanced Materials, to become project partners and collaborate in graphene research. The partnership with Morgan Advanced Materials is meant to improve the prospects of pushing forward graphene commercial use. 

This agreement follows last month's similar agreement between the NGI and 2-DTech. Both 2-DTech and Morgan Advanced Materials joined 30 other partners currently working on graphene research and commercialization projects with the University of Manchester. 

Researchers led by Prof. Andre Geim discovered that graphene, impermeable to gases and liquids, allows protons to pass. This is a breakthrough discovery that could make graphene suitable for use as a proton-conducting membrane, essential in fuel cell technology.

The scientists were surprised to find out that protons manage to pass through graphene with relative ease, especially in high temperatures, because graphene usually demonstrates barrier-like qualities. Fuel cells use oxygen and hydrogen as fuel and convert the input chemical energy unto electricity, with a significant issue of fuel leaks across traditional proton membranes (thus reducing efficiency). The scientists claim graphene membranes may fix that problem and make create much more efficient fuel cells.

The British company 2-DTech, maker and supplier of 2D materials that was spun-off by the University of manchester, started selling graphene in water dispersible form.

The company developed a technique which makes it possible to manufacture graphene products in a solution using water and isopropanol (IPA). This should have various commercial and logistical benefits, and hopefully assist in bringing forth developemnts and innovations in graphene applications.

The UK based 2-DTech, maker and supplier of 2D materials and University of Manchester spun off start-up has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to become a project partner of the National Graphene Institute (NGI).

The agreement will allow 2-DTech to work from the NGI facility upon its completion in March 2015, and is hoped to push forward graphene applications development and commercialization and help cultivate this relationship into a strategic partnership in the future.

Thomas Swan, the privately held global chemical manufacturing company, recently announced that it has received four places in the Innovative UK program (formerly the Technology Strategy Board) for identification and optimization of applications in which graphene can be integrated to add substantial value.

The lead participants in this program are Sharp Laboratories of Europe (energy storage), Smith & Nephew Extruded Films (separations), M-SOLV (touch panels) and Nano Products (printed electronics). The projects will also collaborate with leading UK experts at the University of Manchester, the University of Bradford, the University of Surrey and Nottingham Trent University. 

James Baker, business director at the National Graphene Institute (NGI) in the UK said a technology company (that remained unnamed) is about to open a LED light factory in Manchester.

The factory will produce LED lighting in which graphene will be used to dissipate heat, thanks to its superior heat conductivity trait.