University of Manchester - Page 21

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.

Manchester's City Council, MIDAS, the University of Manchester and the ERDF (who just funded £23 million towards the National graphene Institute in Manchester ) funded and published a new short film that presents graphene, its discovery in Manchester and its possible applications:

Back in February 2012 the UK government announced a £50 million graphene drive, which included £38 million for the national graphene institute (NGI) at the University of Manchester. This world-class facility is set to open in 2015, and today we hear that European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) awarded £23 million towards the NGI, in one of their largest awards ever.

Manchester University also has interest in two graphene companies, 2-DTech (wholly owned) and Graphene Industries.

PlanarTech announced today that UK's 2-DTech (a subsidiary of the University of Manchester) has ordered an enhanced planarGROW-4S CVD system. The system, which was ordered in Q3 2012 and delivered in Q4 2012 will be used to produce high quality graphene for researchers at the University of Manchester.

The planarGROW-4S system has been enhanced to include a 3-zone 1,400C high-temperature furnace and an Oerlikon turbopump for ultra-high vacuum operation.

The University of Manchester launched a £50,000 enterprise competition for students with new graphene ideas. The Eli and Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award is open to final year PhD students and Postdoctoral Research Associates at the University.

The University wants to find a candidate that wishes to establish a new company to commercialize an innovative graphene technology, and the applicants will need to submit a business plan for a new graphene-related business.

Researchers from the University of Manchester discovered that sandwiching graphene between boron nitride layers can produce highly-accurate capacitors. Such capacitors could be cheaper and easier to fabricate compared to traditional transistors.

The researchers used quantum capacitance spectroscopy to investigate the exceptional properties of graphene, as this measurements shows better accuracy.

UK patent consultancy CambridgeIP researched graphene patents and they say that the UK may be falling behind in the graphene race. CambridgeIP identified 7,351 graphene patents (and patent applications), and the leading countries by graphene patents are china (2,204), US (1,754) and Korea (1,160). The UK has only 54 graphene patent applications. Back in February the UK government announced a £50 million graphene drive, which aims to bring the country back to the forefront of graphene research.

The leading research institutes (by patents) are Sungkyunkwan University (Korea, 134), Zhejiang University (China, 97), Tsinghua University (China, 92), Rice University (US, 56), MIT (US, 34) and finally Manchester University (16).

Back in February the UK government announced a £50 million graphene drive, which included £38 million for the National Graphene Institute (NGI) at the University of Manchester (construction is scheduled to begin soon). The BBC posted about the NGI, showing us how the building will look like:

The National Graphene Center plan

The five-story 7,600 square meter building (which will be located on Booth Street East) will include a large research lab and two clean rooms. According to the current plan it will be ready in 2015, which is actually a delay (originally they planned to complete it by Q3 2014).

Researchers from the University of Manchester and Aix-Marseille University developed a new optical device that can analyze a single molecule quickly, using Plasmonics (the study of vibrations of electrons in different materials). This could lead to virus detectors, fast and accurate athlete drug testing and explosive tracking in airports.

The device uses artificial materials with topological darkness that are highly sensitive to a single small molecule (this relies on topological properties of light phase). The artificial material is covered with graphene (which they say is one of the best materials that can be used to measure the sensitivity of molecules). Basically the device is like a single-molecule microscope.

The UK announced extra funding of £21.5 million ($34.7 million) to boost graphene research and development in the UK. This new investment fund aims to "take the technology from the lab to the factory floor".

The Imperial College in London will receive the largest sum (£4.5 million) to investigate aerospace applications of graphene. Other projects are based at Durham University, the University of Manchester, the University of Bath together with the University of Exeter (£1.1  million) and Royal Holloway. All of those universities will collaborate with industrial partners (including Nokia, BAE Systems, Procter & Gamble, Qinetiq, Rolls-Royce, Dyson, Sharp and Philips Research). The commercial companies will take part in the funding and will invest £12 million more.