UK invests in graphene technology

[Peltigera]

BBC News Science & Environment
3 October 2011 Last updated at 17:11
UK invests in graphene technology
By Jennifer Carpenter Science reporter, BBC News

The UK government has pledged £50m towards developing spin-off technologies from the super-strong material graphene.

The announcement comes exactly a year after two Manchester-based scientists were awarded the Nobel-prize for its discovery.

The money is hoped to give researchers more bench space to explore the material's commercial potential.

Funds will be available in the next few months, said the UK science minister.

Graphene, the "miracle material" of the 21st Century, is so far the strongest material known to science, and better at conducting electricity than copper.

It could have a large number of potential application; scientists say it could find uses from transparent touch screens to solar cells, from aircraft wings to optical communication systems, like broadband.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, in his speech at the Conservative Party conference said: "…We will fund a national research programme that will take this Nobel Prize-winning discovery from the British laboratory to the British factory floor.

"We've got to get Britain making things again.

"Countries like Singapore, Korea, America are luring [researchers] with lucrative offers to move their research overseas," he added.

The funds for graphene R&D are in addition to £145 million "earmarked" for the establishment of more UK-based supercomputers, along with funding to support more computer-scientists and facilities to house them, the University and Science Minister David Willetts told BBC News.

He said: "I'm very happy; even in tough times we are investing in science".

In response to the announcement, Professor Sir Peter Knight, President of the Institute of Physics, said: "We're delighted that the Government recognises the role science can play in creating a vibrant, diverse economy for the future of the UK - investment in science delivers great returns economically and intellectually".

"We applauded the Government's decision to 'invest intelligently'," said the director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering (Case) Imran Khan in a statement.

However, he cautions: "These new investments are coming in the wake of enormous cuts to the nation's science and engineering base.

"Last month [Case] released an analysis showing that £1.7bn will have been cut from research and development funds by 2014-15."

Without a long-term strategy to put science and engineering at the heart of the UK's economic recovery, said Mr Khan, home-growth discoveries like groundbreaking research into graphene could be a thing of the past.
BBC

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www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15152609

[Peltigera]

BBC NEWS
Is graphene a miracle material?

By Alex Hudson
BBC News

The material graphene was touted as "the next big thing" even before its pioneers were handed the Nobel Prize last year. Many believe it could spell the end for silicon and change the future of computers and other devices forever.

Graphene
the "miracle material" of the 21st Century.

Said to be the strongest material ever measured, an improvement upon and a replacement for silicon and the most conductive material known to man, its properties have sent the science world - and subsequently the media - into a spin.

WHAT IS GRAPHENE?
Graphene is taken from graphite, which is made up of weakly bonded layers of carbon
Graphene is composed of carbon atoms arranged in tightly bound hexagons just one atom thick
Three million sheets of graphene on top of each other would be 1mm thick
The band structure of graphite was first theorised and calculated by PR Wallace in 1947, though for it to exist in the real world was thought impossible
Due to the timing of this discovery, some conspiracy theorists have linked it to materials at the Roswell "crash site"
In 2004, teams including Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov demonstrated that single layers could be isolated, resulting in the award of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010
It is a good thermal and electric conductor and can be used to develop semiconductor circuits and computer parts. Experiments have shown it to be incredibly strong

"Our research establishes graphene as the strongest material ever measured, some 200 times stronger than structural steel," mechanical engineering professor James Hone, of Columbia University,

"It would take an elephant, balanced on a pencil, to break through a sheet of graphene the thickness of Saran Wrap [cling film]."

And the way this material can be utilised is as surprising as its properties.

"Graphene does not just have one application," says Professor Andre Geim, the current co-holder of the Nobel Prize in physics for his work with the material at Manchester University.

"It is not even one material. It is a huge range of materials. A good comparison would be to how plastics are used."

Much has been made of graphene's potential. It can be used for anything from composite materials - like how carbon-fibre is used currently - to electronics.

Since its properties were uncovered, more and more scientists have been keen to work on projects. About 200 companies and start-ups are now involved in research around graphene. In 2010, it was the subject of about 3,000 research papers.

And the benefits to both businesses and to the consumer are obvious - faster and cheaper devices which are thinner and flexible.

"You could theoretically roll up your iPhone and stick it behind your ear like a pencil," Professor James Tour, of Rice University,

“ We feel that it's rather difficult to imagine graphene as a replacement to silicon ”
Dr Phaedon Avouris, IBM

If graphene can be compared to the way plastic is used today, everything from crisp packets to clothing could be digitised once the technology is established. The future could see credit cards contain as much processing power as your current smartphone.

"It can open completely new applications in transparent electronics, in flexible electronics and electronics that are much faster than today," says Jari Kinaret, professor of technology at Chalmers University in Sweden.

And beyond its digital applications, just one example of its use would be graphene powder added to tyres to make them stronger.

Unlimited speed

Samsung has been one of the biggest investors in research, in collaboration with South Korean Sungkyunkwan University. It has already demonstrated a 25-inch flexible touchscreen using graphene.

"[Samsung has its] own roadmap where they believe there will be a dozen products [on the commercial market] using graphene in the next five years," says Prof Geim.
“ According to the Nobel prize committee, a hypothetical one-metre-square hammock of perfect graphene could support a four-kilogram cat - the hammock would weigh 0.77 milligrams, less than a cat's whisker, and would be virtually invisible ”
Richard Van Noorden, Nature Magazine

But companies like IBM and Nokia have also been involved in research. IBM has created a 150 gigahertz (GHz) transistor - the quickest comparable silicon device runs at about 40 GHz.

"In terms of the speed of the transistor, we currently see no intrinsic limits into how fast it can go," says Dr Yu-ming Lin, of IBM.

"We've already found a number of [problems] that have to be resolved but I don't think it's limited by the intrinsic properties of graphene."

In Europe, research about the material is a frontrunner to receive a 1bn euro investment from the European Commission over the next 10 years.

'Switching off'

Despite this frenzy of progress, investment and press attention, many researchers are cautious. Some are certain that graphene will not do everything that has been thought up for the material.

What has been reported as "potential" seems to be - at the moment - just that, with few real-world examples of it working to replace other materials.

"We feel that it's rather difficult to imagine graphene as a replacement to silicon," says Dr Phaedon Avouris, of IBM.

"The material itself does not have a
an essential property [meaning that graphene cannot stop conducting and be 'switched off', making it unusable in this way]. The applications of graphene and the application of silicon are in different domains."

And even the most revered academics think that a replacement to silicon is a long way off.

"It is a dream," says Prof Geim. "The prospect is so far beyond the horizon that we cannot even assess it properly."

The problem that scientists face is that these "miracle" properties have only ever been demonstrated on a tiny scale.

"The kind of strengths that people quote may not even apply to microscopic samples," says Dr Lin.

"So, while it may be true that on a local level it has this strength much stronger than steel, we have to be careful about these claims.

"We recognise the limitations of graphene and are trying to do things that do not bend the rules of physics.

"We are not setting out to replace silicon as the goal but we are trying to find unique applications that can take advantage of its properties."

With the seemingly unstoppable march of progress in this field, especially as it is less than 10 years old, swift advances could be just around the corner.

Yet with all this money and market demand, scientists are cautious about how quickly all this potential can be turned into reality.

"We would be the happiest people in the world if we could replace silicon," says Dr Avouris.

"But the main thing is to be truthful and not exaggerate because we actually have to deliver."
Story from BBC NEWS:
news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9491789.stm

Published: 2011/05/21 08:28:04 GMT

© BBC 2011
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9491789.stm

[wheelspinner]

It sounds like a terrific breakthrough; I guess time will tell.

When I was a kid I remember reading similar stories about the properties of a miraculous new fibre called kevlar. It all sounded too good to be true, but now it is everyday ho-hum. Maybe in a few decades graphene will also be such an everyday thing that we'll wonder what the fuss was about.

[oskar]

If governments invest in research (taxpayer monies) should those governments (taxpayers) not hold some patent rights and get a direct return on the investments?

[Peltigera]

In 1979 I helped to build a racing yacht out of Kevlar (Marrionette IV, if you are interested). It was an interesting boat - very experimental. The extra thin hull we were able to build was too flexible and she was unsailable until we made her more rigid.

The worst bit was that we had a schedule to meet as the owner (Chris Dunning) wanted to race her in the Admirals Cup. The Kevlar came from the USA (California, if my memory serves me well) and was flown over to England on Concord - 7 hour trip and very expensive. The customs people looked at their list of imports to see what sort of duty to level and could not find Kevlar there at all - so it sat in a bonded warehouse for two months while we slowly wrangled with Customs and got their permission to import the stuff.

[wheelspinner]

Yet another example of how good governments are at facilitating innovation!

[joethree56]

Yet another example of how good governments are at facilitating innovation!
Well that is a generalisation that was rather disproved by an important invention brought about as direct result of such facilitation that had a profound impact on the development of your country.
From Wikiepedia
In 1714, the British government offered a longitude prize for a method of determining longitude at sea, with the awards ranging from £10,000 to £20,000 (several million pounds in modern terms) depending on accuracy. John Harrison, a Yorkshire carpenter, submitted a project in 1730, and in 1735 completed a clock based on a pair of counter-oscillating weighted beams connected by springs whose motion was not influenced by gravity or the motion of a ship. His first two sea timepieces H1 and H2 (completed in 1741) used this system, but he realised that they had a fundamental sensitivity to centrifugal force, which meant that they could never be accurate enough at sea. Construction of his third machine, designated H3, in 1759 included novel circular balances and the invention of the bi-metallic strip and caged roller bearings, inventions which are still widely used. However, H3's circular balances proved too inaccurate and he eventually abandoned the large machines.

Harrison solved the precision problems with his much smaller H4 chronometer design in 1761. H4 looked much like a large five-inch (12 cm) diameter pocket watch. In 1761, Harrison submitted H4 for the £20,000 longitude prize. His design used a fast-beating balance wheel controlled by a temperature-compensated spiral spring. This general layout remained in use until stable electronic oscillators allowed very accurate portable timepieces to be made at affordable cost. Harrison then published his work with Principles of Mr. Harrison's time-keeper in 1767.[7]

[wheelspinner]

One example in over 300 years? Hmmm, not that convincing.