̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Krzysztof Koziol

Graphene means business – two-dimensional material moves from the lab to the UK factory floor

sc604 — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 15:50:52 +0000

More than 40 companies, mostly from the UK, are in Cambridge this week to demonstrate some of the new products being developed from graphene and other two-dimensional materials.

Graphene is a two-dimensional material made up of sheets of carbon atoms. With its combination of exceptional electrical, mechanical and thermal properties, graphene has the potential to revolutionise industries ranging from healthcare to electronics.

On Thursday, the Cambridge Graphene Technology Day – an exhibition of graphene-based technologies organised by the Cambridge Graphene Centre, together with its partner companies – took place, showcasing new products based on graphene and related two-dimensional materials.

Some of the examples of the products and prototypes on display included flexible displays, printed electronics, and graphene-based heaters, all of which have potential for consumer applications. Other examples included concrete and road surfacing incorporating graphene, which would mean lighter and stronger infrastructure, and roads that have to be resurfaced far less often, greatly lowering the costs to local governments.

“At the Cambridge Graphene Technology Day we saw several real examples of graphene making its way from the lab to the factory floor – creating jobs and growth for Cambridge and the UK,” said Professor Andrea Ferrari, Director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre and of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Graphene Technology. “Cambridge is very well-placed in the network of UK, European and global initiatives targeting the development of new products and devices based on graphene and related materials.”

Cambridge has a long history of research and application into carbon-based materials, since the identification of the graphite structure in 1924, moving through to diamond, diamond-like carbon, conducting polymers, and carbon nanotubes, with a proven track-record in taking carbon research from the lab to the factory floor.

Cambridge is also one of the leading centres in graphene technology. Dr Krzysztof Koziol from the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy sits on the management board of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Graphene Technology. He is developing hybrid electrical wires made from copper and graphene in order to improve the amount of electric current they can carry, functional graphene heaters, anti-corrosion coatings, and graphene inks which can be used to draw printed circuit boards directly onto paper and other surfaces.

Koziol has established a spin-out company, Cambridge Nanosystems, which produces high volume amounts of graphene for industrial applications. ̽��ֱ��company, co-founded by recent Cambridge graduate Catharina Paulkner, has recently established a partnership with a major auto manufacturer to start developing graphene-based applications for cars.

Other researchers affiliated with the Cambridge Graphene Centre include Professor Clare Grey of the Department of Chemistry, who is part of the Cambridge Graphene Centre Management Board. She is incorporating graphene and related materials into next-generation batteries and has recently demonstrated a breakthrough in Lithium air batteries by exploiting graphene. Professor Mete Atature from the Department of Physics, is one of the supervisors of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Graphene Technology. He uses two-dimensional materials for research in quantum optics, including the possibility of a computer network based on quantum mechanics, which would be far more secure and more powerful than classical computers.

“ ̽��ֱ��Cambridge Graphene Centre is a great addition to the Cambridge technology and academic cluster,” said Chuck Milligan, CEO of FlexEnable, which is developing technology for flexible displays and other electronic components. "We are proud to be a partner of the Centre and support its activities. Graphene and other two dimensional materials are very relevant to flexible electronics for displays and sensors, and we are passionate about taking technology from labs to the factory floor. Our unique manufacturing processes for flexible electronics, together with the exponential growth expected in the flexible display and Internet of Things sensor markets, provide enormous opportunity for this exciting class of materials. It is for this reason that today we placed in the Cambridge Graphene Centre Laboratories a semi-automatic, large area EVG Spray coater. This valuable tool, donated to the ̽��ֱ��, will be a good match between the area of research of solution processable graphene and Flexenable long term technological vision."

FlexEnable is supporting efforts to scale the graphene technology for use in tomorrow's factories. ̽��ֱ��company has donated a large area deposition machine to the ̽��ֱ��, which is used for depositing large amounts of graphene onto various substrates.

“ ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� is at the heart of the largest, most vibrant technology cluster in Europe,” said Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, the ̽��ֱ��’s Vice-Chancellor. “Our many partnerships with industry support the continued economic success of the region and the UK more broadly, and the Cambridge Graphene Centre is an important part of that – working with industry to bring these promising materials to market.”

Professor David Cardwell, Head of the Cambridge Engineering Department, indicated the planned development in Cambridge of a scale-up centre, where research will be nurtured towards higher technology readiness levels in collaboration with UK industry. “ ̽��ֱ��Cambridge Graphene Centre is a direct and obvious link to this scale-up initiative, which will offer even more exciting opportunities for industry university collaborations,” he said.

Among the many local companies with an interest in graphene technologies are FlexEnable, the R&D arm of global telecommunications firm Nokia, printed electronics pioneer Novalia, Cambridge Nanosystems, Cambridge Graphene, and Aixtron, which specialises in the large-scale production of graphene powders, inks and films for a variety of applications.

Underpinning this commercial R&D effort in Cambridge and the East of England is public and private investment in the Cambridge Graphene Centre via the Graphene Flagship, part funded by the European Union. ̽��ֱ��flagship is a pan-European consortium, with a fast-growing number of industrial partners and associate members.

A major showcase of companies developing new technologies from graphene and other two-dimensional materials took place this week at the Cambridge Graphene Centre.

Cambridge is very well-placed in the network of UK, European and global initiatives targeting the development of new products and devices based on graphene and related materials

Andrea Ferrari

Graphene: A 2D materials revolution

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Some of the products and prototypes on display at Cambridge Graphene Technology Day.

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How carbon cousins shaped warfare and can electrify the future

lw355 — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 13:07:18 +0000

History’s deadliest swords – the ‘Damascene’ sabres forged in the Middle East from the 13th to the 18th centuries – were so sharp they could slice through falling silk, so legend has it. Their astonishing qualities are thought to have come from a combination of specific impurities in the iron ore and how hot and how long they were fired – a process that some scientists believe may have unwittingly created carbon nanotubes (CNTs) within them.

These thin, hollow tubes are only a single carbon atom in thickness. Like their carbon cousin, graphene – in which the atoms lie flat, in a two-dimensional sheet – they are among the strongest, most lightweight and flexible materials known.

“Fast-forward centuries,” said Dr Stephan Hofmann from the Department of Engineering, “and we now realise there is a whole family of these extraordinary origami forms of carbon… and how to make them.” In fact, the ̽��ֱ�� has over 25 years’ cutting-edge experience in carbon nanotechnology, from diamond to nanotubes, and from conducting polymers to diamond-like carbon and graphene.

What makes carbon nanoforms such as graphene and CNTs so exciting is their electrical and thermal properties. Their potential use in applications such as lighter electrical wiring, thinner batteries, stronger building materials and flexible devices could have a transformational impact on the energy, transport and healthcare industries. As a result, investment totalling millions of pounds is now underpinning research and development in carbon-based research across the ̽��ֱ��.

“But all of the superlatives attributed to the materials refer to an individual, atomically perfect, nanotube or graphene flake,” Hofmann added. “ ̽��ֱ��frequently pictured elephant supported by a graphene sheet epitomises the often non-realistic expectations. ̽��ֱ��challenge remains to achieve high quality on a large scale and at low cost, and to interface and integrate the materials in devices.”

These are the types of challenges that researchers in the Departments of Engineering, Materials Science and Metallurgy, Physics and Chemistry, and the Cambridge Graphene Centre have been working towards overcoming.

Professor Alan Windle from the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, for instance, has been using a chemical vapour deposition process to ‘spin’ very strong and tough fibres made entirely of CNTs. ̽��ֱ��nanotubes form smoke in the reactor but, because they are entangled and elastic, fibres can be wound continuously out of the reactor like nano candy floss. ̽��ֱ��yarn-like texture of the fibres gives them extraordinary toughness and resistance to cutting, making them promising alternatives to carbon fibres or high-performance polymer fibres like Kevlar, as well as for building tailored fibre-reinforced polymers used in aerospace and sports applications.

It is on the electrical front that they meet their greatest challenge, as Windle explained: “ ̽��ֱ��process of manufacture is being scaled up through a Cambridge spin-out, Q-Flo; however, electrical conductivity is the next grand challenge for CNT fibres in the laboratory. To understand and develop the fibre as a replacement for copper conductors will be world-changing, with huge benefits.”

In 2013, Windle’s colleague Dr Krzysztof Koziol succeeded in making electric wiring made entirely from CNT fibres and developing an alloy that can solder carbon wires to metal, making it possible to incorporate CNT wires into conventional circuits. ̽��ֱ��team now makes wires ranging from a few micrometres to a few millimetres in diameter at a rate of up to 20 metres per minute – no small feat when you consider each CNT is ten thousand times narrower than a human hair.

With funding from the Royal Society and the European Research Council (ERC), the research is aimed at using CNTs to replace copper and aluminium in domestic electrical wiring, overhead power transmission lines and aircraft. CNTs carry more current, lose less energy in heat and do not require mineral extraction from the earth.

Moreover, they can be made from greenhouse gases; Koziol’s team is working with spin-out company FGV Cambridge Nanosystems to become the world’s first company to produce high-grade CNTs and graphene directly from natural gas or contaminated biogas. ̽��ֱ��company is already operating at an industrial scale, with high-purity graphene being produced at 1 kg per hour. “ ̽��ֱ��aim is to produce high-quality materials that can be directly implemented into new devices, or used to improve other materials, like glass, metal or polymers,”
said Koziol.

Working directly with industry will be key to speeding up the transition from lab to factory for new materials. Hofmann is leading a large effort to develop the manufacturing and integrated processing technology for CNTs, graphene and related nanomaterials, with funding from the ERC and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and in collaboration with a network of industrial partners.

“ ̽��ֱ��field is at a very exciting stage,” he said, “now, not only can we ‘see’ and resolve their intricate structures, but new characterisation techniques allow us to take real-time videos of how they assemble, atom by atom. We are beginning to understand what governs their growth and how they behave in industrially relevant environments. This allows us to better control their properties, alignment, location and interfaces with other materials, which is key to unlocking their commercial potential.”

For high-end applications in the electronics and photonics industry, achieving this level of control is not just desirable but a necessity. ̽��ֱ��ability to produce carbon controllably in its many structural forms widens the ‘materials portfolio’ that a modern engineer has at their disposal. With carbon films or structures already found in products such as hard drives, razor blades and lithium ion batteries, the industrial use of CNTs is becoming increasingly widespread, driven, for instance, by the demand for new technologies such as flexible devices and our need to harvest, convert and store energy more efficiently.

Professor Andrea Ferrari, Director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre and doctoral training programme, which has been funded through a £17 million grant from the EPSRC, explained: “People can now make graphene by the tonne – it’s not an issue. ̽��ֱ��challenge is to match the properties of the graphene you produce with the final application. Our facilities and equipment have been selected to promote alignment with industry; we have collaborations with over 20 companies who share our agenda of advancing real-life applications, and many more are discussing their involvement with our activities.”

Cambridge has pioneered graphene engineering and technology from the very start and, with multiple spin-offs, has become a hub for graphene manufacturing and innovation. ̽��ֱ��Cambridge Graphene Centre aims to improve manufacturing techniques for graphene and related materials, as well as explore applications in the areas of energy storage and harvesting devices, high-frequency electronics, photonics, flexible and wearable electronics, and composites. Graphene is also the focus of large-scale European funding – the Graphene Flagship, a pan-European 10-year, €1 billion science and technology programme was launched in 2013. Ferrari was one of the key investigators who prepared the proposal, has led the development of the science and technology roadmap for the project, and now chairs the Flagship’s Executive Board.

Now, building work has begun on a £12.9 million bespoke facility that will host the Cambridge Graphene Centre, with additional spaces for large-area electronics. ̽��ֱ��facility is due to open in late spring 2015.

“We recognise that there is still much to be done before the early promise becomes reality, but there are major opportunities now,” said Ferrari. “We are at the beginning of a journey. We do not know the final outcome, but the potential of graphene and related materials is such that it makes perfect sense to put a large effort into this early on.”

What links legendarily sharp Damascene swords of the past with flexible electronics and high-performance electrical wiring of the future? They all owe their remarkable properties to different structural forms of carbon.

̽��ֱ��field is at a very exciting stage... we are beginning to understand what governs their growth and how they behave in industrially relevant environments

Stephan Hofmann

̽��ֱ��District

Carbon nanotechnology

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