University of Manchester - Page 20

Bluestone Global Tech decided to open a new European graphene production plant at the University of Manchester. Bluestone will also partner with the University on several projects. Those projects (detailed below) and the pilot production facility are estimated at £5 million ($7.8 million) which will be funded wholly by BGT.

The National Graphene Center plan

This new deal signs the first strategic partnership of the £61 million National Graphene Institute (NGI) established at Manchester and Bluestone is the first company (except University Spin-Offs Graphene Industries and 2-D Tech) to work at the NGI. Specifically Bluestone will open a pre-production facility and will offer graphene material to the University of Manchester's 100+ scientists and engineers working on graphene and other 2D materials. Later on BGT will setup a larger headquarters and a pilot production line at the NGI and will also work towards partnership with other consumer companies.

The University of Manchester is building the UK's National Graphene Institute (NGI) with help from the UK government's £50 million graphene drive. Today the University announced that it appointed the NGI's business development and strategy director.

The National Graphene Center plan

Nathan Hill (a physicist turned business manager) will focus on strategy and business development for the NGI. Nathan's first goal will be to set up a graphene industry club and a number of strategic partnerships with major companies. The University hopes Nathan will help them ensure that they remain the "home of graphene research".

The University of Manchester and the University of Liverpool launched a new consortium to develop new graphene-based energy storage devices. The UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) granted £3.3 million ($5 million) to the consortium.

The University of Manchester will build a new grid-scale energy storage test facility, that will also be made available to industrial partners. This will allow energy storage systems to be fully tested before widespread deployment. The new facility will be operational by 2014.

Researchers from the University of Manchester managed to create elementary magnetic moments in graphene and then switch them on and off. This is the first time magnetism itself has been toggled, rather than the magnetization direction being reversed. They say this is a major breakthrough on the way towards graphene based Spintronics transistor-like devices.

The new research shows that electrons in graphene condense around vacancies ("holes" in the graphene sheet created when some carbon atoms are removed) - and create small "electronic cloud". These clouds carry a spin, and the researchers managed to dissipate and then condense back those clouds.

The University of Manchester announced that world-leading nanomedicine expert, Professor Kostas Kostarelos will join the University in June. Kostas is already collaborating with Manchester's Professor Andre Geim and Professor Kostya Novoselov on graphene-based products for medicine applications. Kostas is focused on targeted drug delivery.

Professor Kostarelos is also researching nano-technology treatment for cancer.

Researchers from the Universities of Manchester and Nottingham developed a new ultra-fast bi-stable graphene transistor. They say that such transistors may enable new medical imaging and security devices.

A bi-stable transistor means that it can spontaneously switch between two electronic states. This new device is made from two layers of graphene separated by a boron nitride insulating layer. By applying a small voltage, you can tune the electron clouds in the graphene layers which induces the electrons so they move at high speed between the layers (by quantum tunneling over the thin insulating layer). This emits high-frequency electromagnetic waves (in the range between radar and infra-red).

Researchers from Manchester University and the National University of Singapore developed a new, efficient and sensitive solar cell made from sheets of graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC). The TMDC (also a 2D material) sheets are very efficient light absorbers while the graphene is used as a transparent conductive layer.

The researchers are optimistic that more and more photoactive "heterestructures" such as the one developed now can be achieved, which will allow them to design multi-functional materials with new functionalities (for example color changing).

The MI5 has warned UK Universities that their research is the target of cyber attacks (apparently by Russia and China) and they should defend it. It especially says that graphene and Quantum computing technologies research are possible targets.

National Graphene Centre (simulated)

UK's Manchester University, where graphene was first isolated and researched is now building the national graphene institute (NGI) with an estimated cost of about £38 million. The University of Cambridge also announced plans to establish a new center for graphene research, which will be called The Cambridge Graphene Centre (CGC).

The UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) awarded a £3.5 million ($5.3 million) to the University of Manchester, for graphene membranes research, with an aim to bring desalination plants, safer food packaging and enhanced disease detection closer to reality.

These highly selective graphene membranes are made from graphene platelets. The aim of the project is to produce working prototypes together with industrial partners. The university researchers already demonstrated that graphene oxide membranes are highly permeable to water, while being completely impermeable to gases and organic liquids when dry. Now they plan to combine graphene with a new type of polymers invented at Manchester (called Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity, or PIMs) which hopefully enable membranes that are even better than pure graphene ones.

Bruker announced today that the National Graphene Institute (NGI) at the University of Manchester will use their Dimension FastScan Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) for research into the nanofabrication and nanoscale properties of graphene.

NGI researchers hope to get new insights into nanoscale variations of graphene conductivity and work function, and they will use Bruker's unique technologies to achieve that. Bruker's AFM will enable simultaneous quantitative mapping of mechanical properties, which will hopefully help the scientists optimize new graphene based materials and devices performance.