More than 40 companies, mostly from the UK, demonstrated some of the new products being developed from graphene and other two-dimensional materials at the Cambridge Graphene Technology Day last week. 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.
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.
Other researchers affiliated with the Cambridge Graphene Centre include Professor Clare Grey of the Department of Chemistry, who is incorporating graphene and related materials into next-generation batteries and has recently demonstrated a breakthrough in Lithium air batteries by exploiting graphene.
Read further at the University of Cambridge Spotlight on Energy.