The collaboration between the two universities, which are both located in UK innovation hotspots, aims to boost growth and turbocharge a more inclusive economy, so everyone can benefit from the opportunities created by innovation.

Professor Ivison visited Cambridge as part of a delegation led by Mayor of Greater 91ֱ��, Andy Burnham, which also included the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Dr Nik Johnson, and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Professor Deborah Prentice.

Also representing The University of Manchester was Professor Richard Jones, Vice-President for Regional Innovation and Civic Engagement and Professor Lou Cordwell, OBE, Professor of Innovation.

During his visit, Professor Ivison toured the Cambridge West Innovation District and paid a visit to the Cambridge Graphene Centre.

Graphene was first isolated at The University of Manchester in 2004, earning Professor Sir Andre Geim and Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov the Nobel Prize in Physics. Two decades on, this wonder material has incredible potential to revolutionise how we live and it is being piloted for a breadth of medical and engineering purposes.

The visiting delegation also paid a visit to AstraZeneca’s Discovery Centre (DISC), a state-of-the-art research facility. The biopharmaceutical giant is set to extend its ‘AstraZeneca Exchange’ science and business mentoring programme to 91ֱ�� entrepreneurs, helping early-stage life sciences businesses to develop their ideas and connect with scientific and commercial experts within the company.

The Glasshouse, a new innovation hub for Innovate Cambridge, was also officially opened by the Mayors. Academics, business and civil leaders from Cambridge and 91ֱ�� also attended the event to celebrate the collaboration between the two universities and Innovate Cambridge.

Professor Ivison said: “To keep the UK at the forefront of a truly inclusive growth agenda, we need to supercharge innovation - linking capital, talent, and research in ways that drive new economic growth.

“Working collaboratively, the partnership will build on the strengths of both cities’ universities and innovation ecosystems to deliver real benefits for our regions and beyond. Our ambition is to power an inclusive economy, positioning 91ֱ�� and Cambridge as central players on the global stage to accelerate growth for all in society.” 

The partnership is the first of its kind, and it aims to build closer relations between universities and research institutions, attract more investment and speed up the growth of start and scale-ups.

Chair of Greater 91ֱ�� Business Board and Professor of Innovation at the University of Manchester, Lou Cordwell, said: “This partnership is a groundbreaking initiative – bringing together two of the UK’s leading innovation cities to help us achieve more. Whether it’s researchers, entrepreneurs, established businesses or investors, we want to support a flow of innovation between our two places.

“Hearing from the Mayors, local leaders, businesses and universities today, the scale of the opportunity and level of ambition was clear and we’re excited to take the partnership further.”

Mayor of Greater 91ֱ��, Andy Burnham, said: “Greater 91ֱ�� and Cambridge are two world-renowned centres of innovation. This partnership is breaking new ground, creating strong new ties between the North of England and the Golden Triangle to drive regional and national economic growth.

“Our two places have distinct identities and unique strengths, but we also have a lot in common – world-leading universities and dynamic, fast-growing economies. We also share an ambition for growth that benefits everyone, with more people and businesses able to access the opportunities created by innovation. By working together, we can be greater than the sum of our parts.”

The Vice-Chancellor’s trip to Cambridge followed hot on the heels of the new government’s first Budget, in which research and development (R&D) is cited as one of the Chancellor’s key priorities. An increase in public R&D investment of £20.4billion in 2025/26 was announced in addition to a boosted budget of £13.9billion for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

The partnership between The University of Manchester and the University of Cambridge aims to plot a new way forward for R&D and innovation-led growth.

Although scientists knew one atom thick, two-dimensional crystal graphene existed, no-one had figured out how to extract it from graphite, until Professor Geim and Professor Novoselov’s groundbreaking work in 91ֱ�� in 2004.

Geim and Novoselov frequently held ‘Friday night experiments’, where they would play around with ideas and experiments that weren’t necessarily linked to their usual research. It was through these experiments that the two first isolated graphene, by using sticky tape to peel off thin flakes of graphite, ushering in a new era of material science.

Their seminal paper ‘, has since been cited over 40,000 times, making it one of the most highly referenced scientific papers of all time.

What Andre and Kostya had achieved was a profound breakthrough, which would not only earn the pair a Nobel Prize in 2010 but would revolutionise the scientific world.

The vast number of products, processes and industries for which graphene could significantly impact all stem from its extraordinary properties. No other material has the breadth of superlatives that graphene boasts:

• It is many times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible
• It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent
• It is the world’s first two-dimensional material and is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.

It’s areas for application are endless: transport, medicine, electronics, energy, defence, desalination, are all being transformed by graphene research.

In biomedical technology, graphene’s unique properties allow for groundbreaking biomedical applications, such as targeted drug delivery and DIY health-testing kits. In sport, graphene-enhanced running shoes deliver more grip, durability and 25% greater energy return than standard running trainers – as well as the world’s first .

Speaking at the , hosted by The University of Manchester, Professor Sir Andre Geim said: “If you have an electric car, graphene is there. If you are talking about flexible, transparent and wearable electronics, graphene-like materials have a good chance of being there. Graphene is also in lithium ion batteries as it improves these batteries by 1 or 2 per cent.”

The excitement, interest and ambition surrounding the material has created a ‘graphene economy’, which is increasingly driven by the challenge to tackle climate change, and for global economies to achieve zero carbon.

At the heart of this economy is The University of Manchester, which has built a model research and innovation community, with graphene at its core. The enables academics and their industrial partners to work together on new applications of graphene and other 2D materials, while the accelerates lab-market development, supporting more than 50 spin-outs and numerous new technologies.

Professor James Baker,  CEO of Graphene@91ֱ�� said: “As we enter the 20^th anniversary since the first discovery of graphene, we are now seeing a real ‘tipping point’ in the commercialisation of products and applications, with many products now in the market or close to entering. We are also witnessing a whole new eco-system of businesses starting to scale up their products and applications, many of which are based in 91ֱ��."

What about the next 20 years?

The next 20 years promise even greater discoveries and The University of Manchester remains at the forefront of exploring the limitless graphene yields.

Currently, researchers working with INBRAIN Neuroelectronics, with funding from the European Commission’s Graphene Flagship, are developing brain implants from graphene which could enable precision surgery for diseases such as cancer.

Researchers have also developed wearable sensors, based on a 2D material called hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), which have the potential to change the way respiratory health is monitored.

As for sustainability, Dr Qian Yang is using nanocapillaries made from graphene that could lead to the development of a brand-new form of , while others are looking into Graphene’s potential in grid applications and storing wind or solar power. Graphene is also being used to reinforce , to reduce cement use – one of the leading causes of global carbon dioxide.

Newly-appointed Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair, Professor Rahul Nair, is investigating graphene-based membranes that can be used as water filters and could transform access to clean drinking water.

Speaking at the World Academic Summit, Professor Sir Andre Geim said: “Thousands of people are trying to understand how it works. I would not be surprised if graphene gets another Nobel prize or two given there are so many people who believe in this area of research.”

Discover more

To hear Andre’s story, including how he and Kostya discovered the wonder material in a Friday night lab session, visit: 

To find out more about The University of Manchester’s work on graphene, visit: 

To discover our world-leading research centre, or commercial accelerator, visit

To find out how we’re training the next generation of 2D material scientists and engineers, visit:

• .

Alzheimer's is marked by a loss of brain cells, whereas glioblastoma is responsible for rapid cell growth. The unexpected relationship between the two, known as ‘inverse comorbidity’, suggests that there might be a deeper biological connection we don’t yet understand. If we could work out what that connection is, we might be able to design vital new treatments. 

Now, a 91ֱ�� team are on a mission to discover the answer and make a positive difference, through what they’ve called the NanoNeuroOmics Project. 
 

The challenge they face 

Both Alzheimer's disease and glioblastoma are often quite well-advanced in a person, by the time they’re diagnosed. The current methods we use for this, such as PET or MRI scans, still aren’t very effective at early detection. What we really need are simple blood tests that can spot changes early on. 

In both conditions, the blood-brain barrier (which normally protects our brain), becomes more permeable – meaning it’s possible to detect disease-related molecules in the blood. This could in turn help us to identify people who were more at risk, and to monitor responses to different types of treatment. 

However, it won’t be easy. In current blood tests, when we’re looking for certain proteins – key indicators of disease – they’re often drowned out by a range of other proteins. Developing a way to spot those blood-based ‘biomarkers’ for brain health, which can easily be used in clinical practice, would be a key next step. 

How 91ֱ�� innovation could make a difference 

By merging expertise in nanotechnology, protein analysis, and blood biomarker discovery, the NanoOmics lab are aiming to: 

1. Identify new blood proteins(biomarkers) that could help in the early diagnosis and monitoring of the Alzheimer's and glioblastoma. 
2. To understand more about the link that Alzheimer's and glioblastoma share. 

The NanoOmics lab is looking to identify these unique biomarkers by tracking protein changes in blood and the brain over time, and across different stages of both diseases. They will use nanotechnology to detect these 'protein markers,' employing nanoparticles to isolate them from the multitude of other molecules present in the blood. With their ‘Nanoomics’ technology, these nanoparticles capture disease-related molecules, acting almost like tiny ’fishing nets’. Using this approach, the team can filter out a huge number of other proteins that are currently getting in the way. In turn, by analysing what they’ve captured, our researchers are aiming to identify new biomarkers that are currently undetectable by state-of-the art protein analysis approaches. 

Hope for the future 

To achieve this, Group Leader Dr Marilena Hadjidemetriou and her NanoOmics team have been combining long-term studies in lab models, with validation studies using biofluids obtained from human patients. 

The aim isn’t only to search for new blood biomarkers, but to gain further insight into how neurological conditions work, so that we can connect changes we see in our blood with changes that can happen in our brain. 

Their approach is multidisciplinary, working with experts across both nanotechnology and omics sciences, to improve early disease detection and hopefully develop personalised treatment for future patients. 

NanoNeuroOmics represents a significant step forward in the quest to understand, detect and treat complex neurological diseases. 

About Dr Marilena Hadjidemetriou 

Dr Hadjidemetriou is the NanoOmics Group Leader, and a Lecturer in Nanomedicine in 91ֱ��’s School of Biological Sciences. 

She joined the Nanomedicine Lab at the University of Manchester as a Marie Curie Early-Stage Fellow and full-time PhD student, working on the development of the nanoparticle protein corona as a tool for cancer diagnostics. 

After her PhD, Dr Hadjidemetriou was granted a postdoctoral fellowship by the Medical Research Council, to focus on the discovery of novel biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease. She was also awarded a 91ֱ�� Molecular Pathology Innovation Centre Pump Priming Grant and the CRUK Pioneer Award, to work on the nanoparticle-enabled discovery of blood biomarkers for a variety of pathologies. 

Now leading the NanoOmics lab Dr Hadjidemetriou is aiming to develop nanotechnology platforms that explore disease pathways and uncover molecular biomarkers. 

Dr Hadjidemetriou’s recent research includes: 

To discuss this research, contact Dr Marilena Hadjidemetriou at marilena.hadjidemetriou@manchester.ac.uk 
 

The company has been selected from 30 international contenders to showcase its Direct Lithium Extraction and Crystallisation (DLEC™) technology by Chile’s state-owned mining body, the Empresa Nacional de Minería (‘ENAMI’). This selection follows a Request for Information issued by the state-owned company for innovative technologies that meet the economic, social, and environmental requirements for the sustainable development of Chile’s extensive lithium reserves.

This project will enable ENAMI to assess the technical and economic feasibility of Watercycle’s technology for lithium exploration in the northeastern Atacama Region. This represents a unique opportunity for Watercycle to showcase the capabilities of its technology alongside major competitors in the mining sector.

Watercycle Technologies is based at the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) and focuses on sustainable and circular critical mineral recovery, including Direct Lithium Extraction and Crystallisation (DLEC™), essential to creating a circular economy for the global energy transition.

Watercycle Co-founder and CEO, Dr Seb Leaper, said: ����’s great to be representing UK technology on the world stage and we are very grateful to ENAMI for giving us the opportunity to do so. Demand for lithium is set to outstrip supply in the coming years as the global transport sector decarbonises. ENAMI is key to filling this supply gap and we couldn’t be more excited to be working with them in this endeavour.”

Professor James Baker, CEO of Graphene@91ֱ��, commented: "We are proud to see Watercycle Technologies, a University of Manchester spinout, being selected by ENAMI for this great opportunity. It is a testament to the world-class innovation emerging from our partnership at the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC). This project demonstrates how advanced materials  technologies can play a pivotal role in addressing global challenges like sustainable lithium extraction."

With over 60% of the world’s lithium supply found in South America, Chile is the leading commercial provider in the region. Watercycle is among eight companies selected by ENAMI, which include industry giants Rio Tinto and Eramet. 

A leading nanomedicine researcher at The University of Manchester has secured a €1.5m (£1.3m) European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant to push forward pioneering research on Alzheimer’s disease and glioblastoma.

The five-year project, NanoNeuroOmics, aims to combine breakthroughs in nanotechnology, protein analysis, and blood biomarker discovery to make advances in two key areas.

First, the team led by will explore the use of nanoparticles to enrich and isolate brain-disease specific protein biomarkers in blood. These discoveries could pave the way for simple, reliable blood tests that diagnose Alzheimer’s and glioblastoma in their early stages.

Second, the research will investigate the phenomenon of “inverse comorbidity,” which suggests that having one of these conditions may reduce the risk of developing the other. Dr. Hadjidemetriou and her team will explore this surprising relationship to uncover any deeper biological connection that could lead to new treatment pathways.

Building on her 2021 research, where Dr. Hadjidemetriou developed a nanoparticle-enabled technology to detect early signs of neurodegeneration in blood, this project has the potential to transform how these brain diseases are diagnosed and treated.

Dr. Hadjidemetriou’s previous work involved using nano-sized particles, known as liposomes, to "fish" disease-specific proteins from the blood. This breakthrough enabled her team to discover proteins directly linked to neurodegeneration processes in the brain, among thousands of other blood-circulating molecules. In animal models of Alzheimer’s, this nano-tool successfully captured hundreds of neurodegeneration-associated proteins. Once retrieved from the bloodstream, the molecular signatures on the surface of these proteins were analysed, offering a clearer picture of the disease at a molecular level.

Now, Dr. Hadjidemetriou's team will evolve this expertise to identify highly specific biomarkers by tracking protein changes in both blood and brain over time and across different stages of Alzheimer's and glioblastoma. By working with different nanomaterials, they hope to isolate these key protein markers from the complex mix of molecules in the blood.

The  NanoNeuroOmics project’s multidisciplinary approach brings together experts in nanotechnology and omics sciences to develop methods for detecting and potentially treating these diseases with greater precision. Research will be conducted at The University of Manchester’s , a cutting-edge facility dedicated to advancing nanoscale technologies. The Centre's focus spans multiple fields, including omics, neurology, therapeutics, and materials science.

Dr. Hadjidemetriou’s team is also part of Manchester’s vibrant 2D materials science community, home to the discovery of graphene 20 years ago, continuing the university’s legacy of scientific innovation.

Lithium-ion batteries, which power everything from smartphones and laptops to electric vehicles, store energy through a process known as ion intercalation. This involves lithium ions slipping between layers of graphite - a material traditionally used in battery anodes, when a battery is charged. The more lithium ions that can be inserted and later extracted, the more energy the battery can store and release. While this process is well-known, the microscopic details have remained unclear. The 91ֱ�� team’s discovery sheds new light on these details by focusing on bilayer graphene, the smallest possible battery anode material, consisting of just two atomic layers of carbon.

In their experiments, the researchers replaced the typical graphite anode with bilayer graphene and observed the behaviour of lithium ions during the intercalation process. Surprisingly, they found that lithium ions do not intercalate between the two layers all at once or in a random fashion. Instead, the process unfolds in four distinct stages, with lithium ions arranging themselves in an orderly manner at each stage. Each stage involves the formation of increasingly dense hexagonal lattices of lithium ions.

, who led the research team, commented, "the discovery of 'in-plane staging' was completely unexpected. It revealed a much greater level of cooperation between the lattice of lithium ions and the crystal lattice of graphene than previously thought. This understanding of the intercalation process at the atomic level opens up new avenues for optimising lithium-ion batteries and possibly exploring new materials for enhanced energy storage."

The study also revealed that bilayer graphene, while offering new insights, has a lower lithium storage capacity compared to traditional graphite. This is due to a less effective screening of interactions between positively charged lithium ions, leading to stronger repulsion and causing the ions to remain further apart. While this suggests that bilayer graphene may not offer higher storage capacity than bulk graphite, the discovery of its unique intercalation process is a key step forward. It also hints at the potential use of atomically thin metals to enhance the screening effect and possibly improve storage capacity in the future.

This pioneering research not only deepens our understanding of lithium-ion intercalation but also lays the groundwork for the development of more efficient and sustainable energy storage solutions. As the demand for better batteries continues to grow, the findings in this research could play a key role in shaping the next generation of energy storage technologies.

The (NGI) is a world-leading graphene and 2D material centre, focussed on fundamental research. Based at The University of Manchester, where graphene was first isolated in 2004 by Professors Sir Andre Geim and Sir Kostya Novoselov, it is home to leaders in their field – a community of research specialists delivering transformative discovery. This expertise is matched by £13m leading-edge facilities, such as the largest class 5 and 6 cleanrooms in global academia, which gives the NGI the capabilities to advance underpinning industrial applications in key areas including: composites, functional membranes, energy, membranes for green hydrogen, ultra-high vacuum 2D materials, nanomedicine, 2D based printed electronics, and characterisation.

Adding graphene to concrete can reduce CO₂ emissions by using less material without sacrificing strength. The consortium, led by Cemex and partnered with Galliford Try, Sika, Northumbrian Water, and Graphene@91ֱ��, will conduct research to develop and market more eco-friendly construction materials.

Working with partners representing the whole supply chain, application experts from Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC), part of Graphene@91ֱ�� will share their expertise and access to cutting edge equipment to support the consortium in designing, developing, scaling, and ‘de-risking’ the next generation of innovative construction materials. Led by Dr Lisa Scullion, who manages the GEIC’s concrete application division, the team will conduct research into the formulation and testing of an integrated micronized limestone and graphene-based admixtures.

Graphene@91ֱ�� has demonstrated through previous collaborations with industry partners that adding graphene effectively enhances the mechanical properties of concrete, reducing the amount of material needed while maintaining early age strength development.

The aim on this project is to understand the benefits of uniting graphene with micronized limestone as a supplementary cementitious material.  The use of micronized limestone reduces the need for Ordinary Portland Cement, which is responsible for a significant portion of concrete's carbon emissions. It’s fine particle size and high surface area, also contributes to improved particle packing and hydration reactions in the concrete mix, enhancing strength and durability.

By using the materials together, the consortium hopes to further lower carbon concrete without compromising on strength, curing time, or the need to amend traditional production methods. The GEIC will formulate the mix, while the actual concrete pour will be at a Northumbria Water installation.

James Baker, CEO at Graphene@91ֱ��, added: This partnership showcases the power of our lab-to-market innovation model, where we collaborate with industry and its supply chain to scale and commercialise graphene and share the remarkable properties of this 2D (2 Dimensional) material. The outcomes of the project will foster engagement between innovation projects and end users, demonstrating market demand, reducing commercial risks, encouraging investment, and speeding up adoption. The potential for graphene-enhanced concrete to significantly reduce CO₂ emissions during manufacturing marks a major advancement in sustainable construction.”

Mike Higgins, National Technical Manager for Cemex UK, commented that “This partnership is a great example of experts working across the construction sector to drive innovative new approaches that aim to bring about additional benefits for the built environment, as it continues its journey towards a more sustainable future.”

Higgins goes on to add that, “The commercial potential of this innovation is substantial, given the urgent need for more sustainable building materials in the face of global climate challenges. This project encompasses a comprehensive plan from laboratory development to real-world application, ensuring the solution is not only technically viable but also commercially viable.”

Upon his visit to India, Foreign Secretary David Lammy met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and both governments committed to developing collaboration between The University of Manchester , the University of Cambridge Graphene Centre and the Indian Institute for Science Bengaluru Centre for Nano Science & Engineering on advanced (two-dimensional) 2D and atomically thin materials and nanotechnology.

The TSI will focus on boosting economic growth in both countries and tackling issues such as telecoms security and semiconductor supply chain resilience. For the University specifically, the collaboration will scope joint research ventures, facilitate student and start-up exchanges, and open access to world-leading laboratories and prototyping facilities.

The University of Manchester is already collaborating with a number of established partners in India, which has resulted in joint PhD programmes with the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, which include a number of projects on 2D materials. The University is already immersed in the fields of Critical Minerals and Artificial Intelligence highlighted in the TSI, and hosted a UK-India Critical Minerals workshop in November 2023.

Lindy Cameron, British High Commissioner to India, said: “The UK-India Technology Security Initiative will help shape the significant science and technology capabilities of both countries to deliver greater security, growth and wellbeing for our citizens. We are delighted to have The University of Manchester play a key part in this, particularly in our collaboration on advanced materials and critical minerals.”

This year The University of Manchester is celebrating its bicentenary and it recently hosted a gala celebration in India at the Taj Lands End hotel Mumbai, attended by over 200 Indian alumni and representatives from our current and prospective partner organisations in the country. The University has also awarded honorary degrees to eminent Indian academic and industrial leaders including Professor C.N.R Rao and Mr Ratan Tata.

Advanced Materials is one of The University of Manchester’s research beacons, and the institution has a long history of innovation in this space. In 2004, the extraction of graphene from graphite was achieved by two University of Manchester researchers, and with their pioneering work recognised with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010.

This prestigious award is designed to support students, postdoctoral researchers, recent graduates, and encourage new student cohorts to engage with MEC, in launching new businesses that involve graphene or other 2D materials. It’s all about sparking innovation and making a real impact in the commercial world, turning groundbreaking research into real, game-changing solutions for the future.

With awards of £50,000 and £20,000, we’re excited to celebrate the individuals or teams who showed how their graphene-related technology can be turned into a business. The applications were judged based on how solid their plans were for creating a new business related to graphene or 2D materials.

This award gives winners the perfect launchpad they need to kickstart their business. The University of Manchester understands how crucial flexible early-stage financial support is for these kinds of ventures, to help make these dreams a reality and bring a product or technology to the market.

This year, the top prize of £50,000 went to Kun Huang of Solar Ethos. Kun has a Master’s degree in Corrosion Control Engineering and a PhD in Material Physics. The second prize of £20,000 was awarded to Hafiza Hifza Nawaz of Fabstics, who has a PhD in Materials. We also congratulate the other finalists - Mohammadhossein Saberian of EcoTarTech and Ozan Zehni of Dorlion SHM.

The winners, pictured above with Deputy Vice-Chancellor & Deputy President Luke Georghiou:

• Left: First place - Solar Ethos
• Right: Second place - Fabstics

All finalists received support throughout the competition, which included: pitching workshops, help with applications by Scott Dean (CEO of Graphene Trace), and IP advice from Innovation Factory. These resources were key in helping them navigate the challenges of starting a business and turning their groundbreaking ideas into real-world solutions.

Our top-tier judges included Professor Luke Georghiou, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Manchester; Lynn Sheppard, Masood Entrepreneurship Centre Director; Jessica McCreadie, Investment Director at Northern Gritstone; James Baker, CEO Graphene @91ֱ�� at The University of Manchester; and Gareth Jones, Project Manager - Electronics at the University of Manchester Innovation Factory. Their expertise and dedication to encouraging innovation played a key role in choosing projects that could make a big difference.

We offer a huge congratulations to all the participants! We can’t wait to see the fantastic impact of their innovative work in the commercial world. By supporting these entrepreneurs, we're not only helping them achieve their dreams but also paving the way for future advancements that can tackle some of the world's most pressing challenges.

Along with the awards, we heard inspiring speeches from high-profile individuals such as Lynn Sheppard, Professor James Baker, Dr. Vivek Koncherry, Liam Johnson, and Professor Luke Georghiou. They shared amazing insights about graphene and other 2D materials, emphasising the transformative potential of these technologies and the importance of ongoing innovation. We were also joined via Zoom from California by Dr. Eli Harari, founder of SanDisk, the memory storage technology company. He encouraged attendees to "Think Big!".

Eli & Britt Harari Award 2021 winner Dr. Vivek Koncherry, the CEO of Graphene Innovations 91ֱ��, is making significant strides in connecting graphene technology with global business opportunities. Last year, he signed a $1 billion partnership with Quazar Investment Company to create a new company in the UAE aimed at tackling global sustainability challenges. Recognised as 91ֱ��'s answer to Elon Musk, Vivek recently impressed judges to win the North West heat of KPMG’s Tech Innovator in the UK 2024. With a strong background as an alumnus and researcher from The University of Manchester, Vivek exemplifies the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Some notable quotes about the competition include Lynn Sheppard's encouragement, "For all the winners and nominees, your journey does not stop here, it goes on," and Prof. James Baker's insight, "Graphene can make a big difference in addressing the climate change challenges." Dr. Vivek Koncherry highlighted 91ֱ��'s entrepreneurial spirit by stating, "91ֱ�� is very good for entrepreneurship," while Dr. Eli Harari inspired with, "We need people like you to aspire in making the world better." Liam Johnson appreciated the award's impact, saying, "The award allowed me to turn this idea to something tangible," and Prof. Luke Georghiou emphasised the importance of support with, "It's our duty to build an ecosystem to support the development of graphene."

Their words emphasised the event's theme of driving change and shaping a brighter future through cutting-edge research and entrepreneurship, wrapping up the event on an exhilarating high.

Entitled ‘91ֱ�� Model: Industry led, academic fed’, the event brought to life how Graphene@91ֱ��’s ecosystem supports partners in leveraging the capabilities of 2D materials – from 2D material research tailored to organisation’s application needs, to accelerating their real-world translation. 

Professor James Baker, CEO of Graphene@91ֱ�� explains: “We offer something unique in UK academia: a comprehensive pipeline for scaling up, supporting industry through technology readiness levels 1 to 7. This is possible due to three key strengths: our world-leading community of research and innovation experts, our state-of-the-art facilities, and our lab-to-market expertise, where we can support industry in developing products with improved performance and reduced environmental impact. 

"Our University is at the forefront of the 2D materials revolution and serves as the UK's principal knowledge partner for the commercialisation of 2D materials. Today's event aimed to showcase our exceptional capabilities to a new industry audience, enabling them to benefit from our unparalleled offerings." 

Over the course of the two days, attendees met academics – including Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov, the Nobel Prize winning scientist who isolated graphene in 2004 with Professor Sir Andre Geim – and application experts leading cutting-edge research from lab to market; toured 91ֱ��’s world-leading facilities, National Graphene Institute (NGI) and the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC); met companies who have already benefited from their partnership with 91ֱ��; and were shown how the University is training a new generation of 2D materials experts.  

They were also invited to the presentation. This annual award, in association with Nobel Laureate Professor Sir Andre Geim, is gifted to help the implementation of commercially-viable business proposals from our students, post-doctoral researchers and recent graduates. 

‘91ֱ�� Model: Industry led, academic fed’ was hosted in the run up to the official 20^th anniversary of the first graphene paper. It recognised the University’s continued role in driving a fast-growing graphene economy.  

The University of Manchester is home to the highest-density graphene and 2D material research and innovation community in the world, comprising more than 350 experts spanning various disciplines, including physics, materials science, chemistry, neuroscience. This community includes academics, engineers and application experts, who bridge the gap between academia and the real-world needs of businesses, and innovation leaders, investment experts, IP advisors, plus operational and specialist technical staff.  

Renowned for rapidly advancing Technology Readiness Levels (TRL), this community is centred around two specialist facilities: the £62m academic-led NGI; and the multi-million pound research translation centre, the GEIC.  

The NGI is the hub for groundbreaking 2D material research, featuring 150m² of class five and six cleanrooms. It is home to Nobel Prize-winning Professor Sir Andre Geim, who, along with Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov, isolated graphene in 2004 and who continues to support a leading community of fundamental science researchers. 

The GEIC focuses on accelerating the development of lab-to-market innovations. In just five years, it has supported over 50 spin-outs and launched numerous new technologies, products, and applications in collaboration with industrial partners. These include a groundbreaking hydrogel for vertical farming and a method for extracting lithium from water for battery production. 

Read more about the event at the dedicated page. 

Visit to contact Graphene@91ֱ��’s experts and discover the facilities available. 

To discuss semicoductor research, talk about potential collaboration, or to access facilities . 
 

Electrochemical processes are essential in renewable energy technologies like batteries, fuel cells, and electrolysers. However, their efficiency is often hindered by slow reactions and unwanted side effects. Traditional approaches have focused on new materials, yet significant challenges remain.

The 91ֱ�� team, led by , has taken a novel approach. They have successfully decoupled the inseparable link between charge and electric field within graphene electrodes, enabling unprecedented control over electrochemical processes in this material. The breakthrough challenges previous assumptions and opens new avenues for energy technologies.

Dr Marcelo Lozada-Hidalgo sees this discovery as transformative, “We’ve managed to open up a previously inaccessible parameter space. A way to visualise this is to imagine a field in the countryside with hills and valleys. Classically, for a given system and a given catalyst, an electrochemical process would run through a set path through this field. If the path goes through a high hill or a deep valley – bad luck. Our work shows that, at least for the processes we investigated here, we have access to the whole field. If there is a hill or valley we do not want to go to, we can avoid it.”

The study focuses on proton-related processes fundamental for hydrogen catalysts and electronic devices. Specifically, the team examined two proton processes in graphene:

Proton Transmission: This process is important for developing new hydrogen catalysts and fuel cell membranes.

Proton Adsorption (Hydrogenation): Important for electronic devices like transistors, this process switches graphene’s conductivity on and off.

Traditionally, these processes were coupled in graphene devices, making it challenging to control one without impacting the other. The researchers managed to decouple these processes, finding that electric field effects could significantly accelerate proton transmission while independently driving hydrogenation. This selective acceleration was unexpected and presents a new method to drive electrochemical processes.

Highlighting the broader implication in energy applications, Dr Jincheng Tong, first author of the paper, said “We demonstrate that electric field effects can disentangle and accelerate electrochemical processes in 2D crystals. This could be combined with state-of-the-art catalysts to efficiently drive complex processes like CO2 reduction, which remain enormous societal challenges.”

Dr Yangming Fu, co-first author, pointed to potential applications in computing: “Control of these process gives our graphene devices dual functionality as both memory and logic gate. This paves the way for new computing networks that operate with protons.  This could enable compact, low-energy analogue computing devices.”

Since publication, a review of the paper was included in Nature’s News & Views section, which summarises high-impact research and provides a forum where scientific news is shared with a wide audience spanning a range of disciplines: .

The National Graphene Institute (NGI) is a world-leading graphene and 2D material centre, focussed on fundamental research. Based at The University of Manchester, where graphene was first isolated in 2004 by Professors Sir Andre Geim and Sir Kostya Novoselov, it is home to leaders in their field – a community of research specialists delivering transformative discovery. This expertise is matched by £13m leading-edge facilities, such as the largest class 5 and 6 cleanrooms in global academia, which gives the NGI the capabilities to advance underpinning industrial applications in key areas including: composites, functional membranes, energy, membranes for green hydrogen, ultra-high vacuum 2D materials, nanomedicine, 2D based printed electronics, and characterisation.

The international team, which also included Penn State College of Engineering, Koc University in Turkey and Vienna University of Technology in Austria, has developed a unique interface that localises thermal emissions from two surfaces with different geometric properties, creating a “perfect” thermal emitter. This platform can emit thermal light from specific, contained emission areas with unit emissivity.

, professor of 2D device materials at The University of Manchester, explains, “We have demonstrated a new class of thermal devices using concepts from topology — a branch of mathematics studying properties of geometric objects — and from non-Hermitian photonics, which is a flourishing area of research studying light and its interaction with matter in the presence of losses, optical gain and certain symmetries.”

The team said the work could advance thermal photonic applications to better generate, control and detect thermal emission. One application of this work could be in satellites, said co-author Prof Sahin Ozdemir, professor of engineering science and mechanics at Penn State. Faced with significant exposure to heat and light, satellites equipped with the interface could emit the absorbed radiation with unit emissivity along a specifically designated area designed by researchers to be incredibly narrow and in whatever shape is deemed necessary.   

Getting to this point, though, was not straight forward, according to Ozdemir. He explained part of the issue is to create a perfect thermal absorber-emitter only at the interface while the rest of the structures forming the interface remains ‘cold’, meaning no absorption and no emission.

“Building a perfect absorber-emitter—a black body that flawlessly absorbs all incoming radiation—proved to be a formidable task,” Ozdemir said. However, the team discovered that one can be built at a desired frequency by trapping the light inside an optical cavity, formed by a partially reflecting first mirror and a completely reflecting second mirror: the incoming light partially reflected from the first mirror and the light which gets reflected only after being trapped between the two mirrors exactly cancel each other. With the reflection thus being completely suppressed, the light beam is trapped in the system, gets perfectly absorbed, and emitted in the form of thermal radiation.

To achieve such an interface, the researchers developed a cavity stacked with a thick gold layer that perfectly reflects incoming light and a thin platinum layer that can partially reflect incoming light. The platinum layer also acts as a broadband thermal absorber-emitter. Between the two mirrors is a transparent dielectric called parylene-C.

The researchers can adjust the thickness of the platinum layer as needed to induce the critical coupling condition where the incoming light is trapped in the system and perfectly absorbed, or to move the system away from the critical coupling to sub- or super-critical coupling where perfect absorption and emission cannot take place.

“Only by stitching two platinum layers with thicknesses smaller and larger than the critical thickness over the same dielectric layer, we create a topological interface of two cavities where perfect absorption and emission are confined. Crucial here is that the cavities forming the interface are not at critical coupling condition,” said first author M. Said Ergoktas, a research associate at The University of Manchester 

The development challenges conventional understanding of thermal emission in the field, according to co-author Stefan Rotter, professor of theoretical physics at the Vienna University of Technology, “Traditionally, it has been believed that thermal radiation cannot have topological properties because of its incoherent nature.”

According to Kocabas, their approach to building topological systems for controlling radiation is easily accessible to scientists and engineers.  

“This can be as simple as creating a film divided into two regions with different thicknesses such that one side satisfies sub-critical coupling, and the other is in the super-critical coupling regime, dividing the system into two different topological classes,” Kocabas said.

The realised interface exhibits perfect thermal emissivity, which is protected by the reflection topology and “exhibits robustness against local perturbations and defects,” according to co-author Ali Kecebas, a postdoctoral scholar at Penn State. The team confirmed the system’s topological features and its connection to the well-known non-Hermitian physics and its spectral degeneracies known as exceptional points through experimental and numerical simulations.

“This is just a glimpse of what one can do in thermal domain using topology of non-Hermiticity. One thing that needs further exploration is the observation of the two counterpropagating modes at the interface that our theory and numerical simulations predict,” Kocabas said.

The National Graphene Institute (NGI) is a world-leading graphene and 2D material centre, focussed on fundamental research. Based at The University of Manchester, where graphene was first isolated in 2004 by Professors Sir Andre Geim and Sir Kostya Novoselov, it is home to leaders in their field – a community of research specialists delivering transformative discovery. This expertise is matched by £13m leading-edge facilities, such as the largest class 5 and 6 cleanrooms in global academia, which gives the NGI the capabilities to advance underpinning industrial applications in key areas including: composites, functional membranes, energy, membranes for green hydrogen, ultra-high vacuum 2D materials, nanomedicine, 2D based printed electronics, and characterisation.

Superconductivity, the ability of certain materials to conduct electricity with zero resistance, holds profound potential for advancements of quantum technologies. However, achieving superconductivity in the quantum Hall regime, characterised by quantised electrical conductance, has proven to be a mighty challenge.

The research, published this week (24 April 2024) in , details extensive work of the 91ֱ�� team led by Professor Andre Geim, Dr Julien Barrier and Dr Na Xin to achieve superconductivity in the quantum Hall regime. Their initial efforts followed the conventional route where counterpropagating edge states were brought into close proximity of each other. However, this approach proved to be limited.

"Our initial experiments were primarily motivated by the strong persistent interest in proximity superconductivity induced along quantum Hall edge states," explains Dr Barrier, the paper's lead author. "This possibility has led to numerous theoretical predictions regarding the emergence of new particles known as non-abelian anyons."

The team then explored a new strategy inspired by their earlier work demonstrating that boundaries between domains in graphene could be highly conductive. By placing such domain walls between two superconductors, they achieved the desired ultimate proximity between counterpropagating edge states while minimising effects of disorder.

"We were encouraged to observe large supercurrents at relatively ‘balmy’ temperatures up to one Kelvin in every device we fabricated," Dr Barrier recalls.

Further investigation revealed that the proximity superconductivity originated not from the quantum Hall edge states propagating along domain walls, but rather from strictly 1D electronic states existing within the domain walls themselves. These 1D states, proven to exist by the theory group of Professor Vladimir Falko’s at the National Graphene Institute, exhibited a greater ability to hybridise with superconductivity as compared to quantum Hall edge states. The inherent one-dimensional nature of the interior states is believed to be responsible for the observed robust supercurrents at high magnetic fields.

This discovery of single-mode 1D superconductivity shows exciting avenues for further research. “In our devices, electrons propagate in two opposite directions within the same nanoscale space and without scattering", Dr Barrier elaborates. "Such 1D systems are exceptionally rare and hold promise for addressing a wide range of problems in fundamental physics."

The team has already demonstrated the ability to manipulate these electronic states using gate voltage and observe standing electron waves that modulated the superconducting properties.

���� is fascinating to think what this novel system can bring us in the future. The 1D superconductivity presents an alternative path towards realising topological quasiparticles combining the quantum Hall effect and superconductivity,” concludes Dr Xin. "This is just one example of the vast potential our findings holds."

20 years after the advent of the first 2D material graphene, this research by The University of Manchester represents another step forward in the field of superconductivity. The development of this novel 1D superconductor is expected to open doors for advancements in quantum technologies and pave the way for further exploration of new physics, attracting interest from various scientific communities.

The is a world-leading graphene and 2D material centre, focussed on fundamental research. Based at The University of Manchester, by Professors Sir Andre Geim and Sir Kostya Novoselov, it is home to leaders in their field – a community of research specialists delivering transformative discovery. This expertise is matched by £13m leading-edge facilities, such as the largest class 5 and 6 in global academia, which gives the NGI the capabilities to advance underpinning industrial applications in key areas including: composites, functional membranes, energy, membranes for green hydrogen, ultra-high vacuum 2D materials, nanomedicine, 2D based printed electronics, and characterisation.

Described by the ERC as among the EU’s most prestigious and competitive grants, today’s funding has been awarded to the following senior research leaders:

• , Professor of Emerging Optoelectronics, based in the and , to investigate scalable nanomanufacturing paradigms for emerging electronics (SNAP). The program aims to develop sustainable large-area electronics, a potential game-changer in emerging semiconductor markets, that will help reduce society's reliance on current polluting technologies while enabling radically new applications.
• , Chair in Evolutionary Biology, in the School of Biological Sciences, to investigate how genomic complexity shapes long-term bacterial evolution and adaptation.
• , in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Director of the Photon Science Institute to develop a table-top nuclear facility to produce cold actinide molecules that will enable novel searches for new physics beyond the standard model of particle physics.
• Professor Sir Andre Geim, who isolated graphene in 2004 with Professor Sir Konstantin Novoselov, to explore 2D materials and their van der Waals assemblies.
• , to lead work into chemically fuelled molecular ratchets. Ratcheting underpins the mechanisms of molecular machinery, gives chemical processes direction, and helps explain how chemistry becomes biology.
• , in the Department of Chemistry and  91ֱ�� Institute of Biotechnology, to develop enzymatic methods for peptide synthesis (EZYPEP). Peptides are fundamental in life and are widely used as therapeutic agents, vaccines, biomaterials and in many other applications. Currently peptides are produced by chemical synthesis, which is inefficient, expensive, difficult to scale-up and creates a huge amount of harmful waste that is damaging to the environment. EZYPEP will address this problem by developing enzymatic methods for the more sustainable, cleaner and scalable synthesis of peptides, including essential medicines to combat infectious diseases, cancer and diabetes.
•  , based in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, to explore Top and Higgs Couplings and extended Higgs Sectors with rare multi-Top multi-Higgs Events with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This project aims at deeper insight into the most fundamental properties of nature beyond our current understanding.

The University of Manchester received seven of the 42 grants awarded to UK institutions.

The grant recipients will join a community of just 255 awarded ERC advanced grants, from a total of 1,829 submissions.

As a result of today’s announcement, the ERC will be investing nearly €652 million across the 255 projects.

Head of Department for Physics and Astronomy, which received three of the seven grants, said: “Today’s triple award reflects our department’s continued leadership in pioneering research. We’re home to Jodrell Bank, host of the Square Kilometre Array Observatory – set to be the largest radio telescope in the world; the National Graphene Institute – a world-leading centre for 2D material research with the largest clean rooms in European academia; we lead experiments at CERN and Fermilab; and – crucially – we host a world-leading community of vibrant and collaborative researchers like Professors Flanagan, Geim and Peters who lead the way. Today’s announcement recognises their role as outstanding research leaders who will drive the next generation to deliver transformative breakthroughs.”

, Vice-Dean for Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at The University of Manchester, added: “Our University’s history of scientific and engineering research is internationally recognised but it does not constrain us. Instead, it’s the work of our researchers – like the seven leaders celebrated today – and what they decide to do next, that will define us.  We are proud to have a culture where responsible risk-taking is nurtured and transformative outcomes delivered, and we look forward to these colleagues using this environment to deliver world-leading and world-changing research.”

, Vice-Dean for Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, said: "These awards are welcome recognition of the world-leading and transformative frontier science that The University of Manchester researchers are delivering. The compelling and innovative research supported by these ERC awards builds on the excellent local environment at 91ֱ�� and are cornerstones of the University’s strategy for excellence and leadership in research and innovation. The positive and real-world global impact from these research awards could deliver are genuinely tangible.

"As we enter our third century, the awards made in a highly competitive environment, are evidence that we do so with a continued pioneering approach to discovery and the pursuit of knowledge that our research community was built on."

Iliana Ivanova, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth at the ERC, said: “This investment nurtures the next generation of brilliant minds. I look forward to seeing the resulting breakthroughs and fresh advancements in the years ahead.”

The ERC grants are part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme.

Carefully controlled inhalation of a specific type of – the world’s thinnest, super strong and super flexible material – has no short-term adverse effects on lung or cardiovascular function, the study shows.

The first controlled exposure clinical trial in people was carried out using thin, ultra-pure graphene oxide – a water-compatible form of the material.

Researchers say further work is needed to find out whether higher doses of this graphene oxide material or other forms of graphene would have a different effect.

The team is also keen to establish whether longer exposure to the material, which is thousands of times thinner than a human hair, would carry additional health risks.

There has been a surge of interest in developing graphene – at The University of Manchester in 2004 and which has been hailed as a ‘wonder’ material. Possible applications include electronics, phone screens, clothing, paints and water purification.

Graphene is actively being explored around the world to assist with targeted therapeutics against cancer and other health conditions, and also in the form of implantable devices and sensors. Before medical use, however, all nanomaterials need to be tested for any potential adverse effects.

Researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and 91ֱ�� recruited 14 volunteers to take part in the study under carefully controlled exposure and clinical monitoring conditions.

The volunteers breathed the material through a face mask for two hours while cycling in a purpose-designed mobile exposure chamber brought to Edinburgh from the National Public Health Institute in the Netherlands.

Effects on lung function, blood pressure, blood clotting and inflammation in the blood were measured – before the exposure and at two-hour intervals. A few weeks later, the volunteers were asked to return to the clinic for repeated controlled exposures to a different size of graphene oxide, or clean air for comparison.

There were no adverse effects on lung function, blood pressure or the majority of other biological parameters looked at.

Researchers noticed a slight suggestion that inhalation of the material may influence the way the blood clots, but they stress this effect was very small.

Dr Mark Miller, of the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Cardiovascular Science, said: “Nanomaterials such as graphene hold such great promise, but we must ensure they are manufactured in a way that is safe before they can be used more widely in our lives.

“Being able to explore the safety of this unique material in human volunteers is a huge step forward in our understanding of how graphene could affect the body. With careful design we can safely make the most of nanotechnology.”

Professor Kostas Kostarelos, of The University of Manchester and the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) in Barcelona, said: “This is the first-ever controlled study involving healthy people to demonstrate that very pure forms of graphene oxide – of a specific size distribution and surface character – can be further developed in a way that would minimise the risk to human health.

���� has taken us more than 10 years to develop the knowledge to carry out this research, from a materials and biological science point of view, but also from the clinical capacity to carry out such controlled studies safely by assembling some of the world’s leading experts in this field.”

Professor Bryan Williams, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at the British Heart Foundation, said: “The discovery that this type of graphene can be developed safely, with minimal short term side effects, could open the door to the development of new devices, treatment innovations and monitoring techniques.

“We look forward to seeing larger studies over a longer timeframe to better understand how we can safely use nanomaterials like graphene to make leaps in delivering lifesaving drugs to patients.”

The study is published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology: .It was funded by the British Heart Foundation and the UKRI EPSRC.

• Tiny channels of nanometer scale (1 nanometer = 1/billionth of a meter) are found in nature that allow substances to pass through and filter out impurities. These are present in human cell linings and in the neurons in brain. Scientists have only recently begun to understand the importance of these channels. Creating these structures artificially could be useful for many things, such as testing medicines, delivering drugs, and filtering water.
• Nanofluidics is the study of the transport of fluids that are confined to structures of nanometer length scale. 91ֱ��’s  investigates nanocapillaries’ design and fabrication. The first paper that described the fabrication of the angstrom scale 2D channels was co-led by Prof Sir Andre Geim and Prof Radha Boya.
• The brain uses ions, chemicals and water to make its calculations and store 'memory' whereas artificial computers use electrons in their operation.  The emerging field of nanofluidic computing, also called ionic computing, raises the possibility of devices that operate similarly to the human brain.
   

The link between nanofluidics and computing

Imagine a computer that runs like our brains, consuming minimal energy and seamlessly processing information. That's the promise of nanofluidic computing, a radical departure from conventional computing architectures. Instead of relying on rigid binary systems, nanofluidics harness the flow of ions in fluids, mimicking the brain's efficiency and adaptability. This innovative approach could lead to computers that are not only more energy-efficient but also capable of handling complex tasks with ease.

91ֱ�� researcher, Professor Radha Boya, is trying to mimic the behaviour of neuronal learning mechanisms using ions in water. Her research investigates utilising Ångstrom-scale (that is, one ten-billionth, or 0.1 nanometre) designer capillaries for molecular transport, ion sieving and sensing, energy harvesting and neuromorphic ion memory applications.

Building nanocapillaries

The team’s latest research involves the design and fabrication of capillary devices with atomically thin 2D materials assembled as 2D heterostructures. The capillaries are layer-by-layer structures of 2D materials such as graphene, with cavities running through the middle of the stack. To put it simply – this is the fabrication of atomic-scale channels with atomically smooth walls.

The 2D channel is created by the absence of 2D material, hence is a 2D-empty space. They can be fabricated on any relatively flat substrate and with the flexibility to choose any combination of 2D material walls ranging from hydrophilic to hydrophobic or insulating to conducting. Such customisation allows to exploration of anomalous or quantum properties of ultra-confined flows at ambient conditions and validates century-old theories.

This novel architecture of capillaries provides atomic scale tunability of dimensions and atomically smooth walls. Despite the Ångstrom (Å) scale, this is essentially a top-down lithographic technique which ensures its high reproducibility and flexibility.

The future of nanocapillaries and nanofluidic computing

Professor Boya’s team of physics and chemistry researchers investigates novel properties of materials in confinements, the aforementioned capillaries, at the limits of molecular sizes for unravelling their emergent physical and chemical properties. The group is exploring new perspectives in nanofluidics by pushing the boundaries of nanofabrication with angstrom-scale two-dimensional channels.

These devices are now a step closer to ‘nanofluidic computing’. Memory achieved using simple salt solutions in water is an exciting prospect hinting at the possibility of devices that operate similarly to the human brain.

Making  a difference: the impact of research

Membrane-based applications with nanoscale channels, such as osmotic power generation, desalination, and molecular separation would benefit from understanding the mechanisms of sieving, ways to decrease fluidic friction, and increasing the overall efficiency of the process.

However, mechanisms that allow fast flows are not fully understood yet. Professor Radha’s work on angstrom-capillaries that are only few atoms thick, opens an avenue to investigate fundamental sieving mechanisms behind important applications such as filtration, separation of ions, molecules and gases, desalination, and fuel gas separation from refinery off-gases.

About Professor Radha Boya

 is Royal Society University Research and Kathleen Ollerenshaw fellow at the University of Manchester (UoM), where she is exploring the fundamentals and applications of atomic scale nanocapillaries. She has been funded through a series of highly competitive and prestigious international fellowships, including Indo-US pre- and postdoctoral, as well as European Union's Marie Sklodowska-Curie and Leverhulme early career fellowships. Radha was named as UNESCO L’Oréal-women in science fellow, and was recognized as an inventor of MIT Technology Review's "Innovators under 35" list, RSC Marlow award, Philip Leverhulme Prize, and Analytical Chemistry Young Innovator Award and is an ERC starting grant awardee.

Recent relevant papers :

To discuss this research further contact Professor Radha Boya.

Discover how to access our world-leading research and state-of-the-art equipment. Visit our to find out about the National Graphene Institute and our other world-leading facilities. 
 

The Graphene Hackathon recently hosted an inspiring event, challenging student teams to push the boundaries of innovation using graphene. 60 participants across 10 teams went head-to-head to develop graphene-enhanced prototypes of innovative products - from haptic devices for stroke recovery to smart boxing gloves, the creativity was boundless! 

The Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre were pleased to source printing screens which the hackers used, while First Graphene prepared and supplied the ink. The collaboration showcased various applications, including chemical sensors, antennas, strain sensors, and heating elements. 

Congratulations to the winning teams: 

• 1st prize: Iron Glove Technologies - smart boxing glove 
• 2nd prize: PythagoRAIN - wind rain and chemical sensors 
• 3rd prize: Digital Wall - early warning system for farmers 
• Best pitch: Plasmonic sensor - 3D printed graphene meta material 
• Sustainability prize: PythagoRAIN - wind rain and chemical sensors 

Kudos to our esteemed judges, Scott Dean, Abdul A., Ian Martin, Professor Irina Grigorieva and Rob Whieldon, and a big thank you to our post-doctoral researchers (alumni of the Graphene NOWNANO CDT based at the National Graphene Institute who shared their expertise! 

Well done to all those involved for turning ideas into tangible prototypes and pitches into potential, showcasing the vast opportunities for graphene. 
 

Long-term energy storage – or energy storage with a duration of at least ten hours – is key to supporting the low-carbon energy transition and security. It will enable electricity generated by renewables to be stored for longer, increasing the efficiency of these environmentally sustainable technologies and reducing dependency baseload imported gas and coal-fired power plants. It will also help drive the multi-billion global market which is, currently, inadequately served with current market-ready technologies.

HalioGEN Power – a spin-out founded by The University of Manchester Professor and, with Research Associates Dr Lewis Le Fevre, Dr Andinet Aynalem, and Dr Athanasios Stergiou – has created a technology that has the potential to store energy and efficiently provide power without using critical raw materials.

HalioGEN Power’s team have achieved this by developing a redox-flow battery technology that does not require the use of membrane. By eliminating the need for a membrane, this technology is one of the world’s first long-term storage solutions to negate the use of lithium. Instead, by manipulating the halogen chemistry, the team has been able to create a two-phase system, where the interface between the two phases acts as a membrane.

Unlike current market-established technologies that use lithium metal and can only store energy efficiently for up to four hours, HalioGEN’s redox-flow batteries can store energy for more than ten hours.

In addition, the HalioGEN Power technology requires just one tank and one pump, instead of two for conventional flow batteries. This not only reduces the capital cost of the system, but also reduces the complexity of the battery design.

The new funding is provided by , The German Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation, following the successful creation of a lab-based protype by the HalioGEN Power team. The prototype phase took place within the labs, using an initial €1 million investment, also provided by SPRIND.

The €3 million seed funding will now be used to scale and de-risk this protype over the next 18 months, preparing its route for commercial application.

During this 18-month lab-to-market acceleration period, HalioGEN Power will be based in the (GEIC) at The University of Manchester. The GEIC specialises in the commercialisation of new technologies using graphene and other 2D materials. As a GEIC partner, HalioGEN Power will be able to access its world-class facilities and resources, supported by a team of application engineers with broad experience in the development of novel products.

Despite its infancy, HalioGEN Power has already received expressions of interest from various organisations from the UK and Europe, including energy suppliers and energy solution providers, keen to apply its technology and invest in future roll out.

The HalioGEN Power project team will be led by the co-founders, who will each take key roles in the business structure. Dr Lewis Le Fevre will operate as Chief Technology Officer, Dr Andinet Aynalem as Principal Scientist, and Dr Athanasios Stergiou as Senior Scientist, with Professor Robert Dryfe overseeing all activity.

Robert Dryfe, Professor of Physical Chemistry at The University of Manchester and HalioGEN Power’s co-founder explained: “Our goal is to bring to market a new, disruptive energy innovation that helps address global energy transition and security challenges, while also tackling geo-specific issues that threaten the stability of the grid, such as the so-called ‘dark lulls’ in Germany. These lulls see the country go for up to ten days without significant solar and wind energy generation.

“Our redox-flow battery technology creates long-term storage to navigate issues like this in order to maximise the environmental and economic sustainability of renewable energy systems."

 As part of this development stage, SPRIND will provide financial support and mentorship. SPRIND is part of the German Federal Government and has been set up to support innovators from Germany and neighbouring countries, creating a space where they can take risks. 

In addition, HalioGEN Power will receive ongoing support from the (the Agency), a unique collaboration between eight partners from the public, private and academic sectors in Greater 91ֱ�� (GM), tasked with accelerating carbon emission reductions and transitioning the GM city-region to a carbon-neutral economy by 2038 by connecting innovative low-carbon products and services to end-users

The Agency will support HalioGEN Power in the further development of the business, business plan, and products, from Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 4 to 7, throughout 2024 and 2025, sourcing and introducing potential end user customers and defining a clear route for the technology from prototype to market-ready.

David Schiele, Director of The Energy Innovation Agency said: “The Agency is thrilled to be working with the HalioGEN Power team, and uniquely placed, to help them accelerate development of their innovative battery technology and business throughout 2024 and beyond, by offering access to business development support, and end-users, to support the energy transition with innovative products which make greater use of stored energy from clean renewable energy generation”.

HalioGEN Power is the second spin-out co-created by Professor Robert Dryfe. He also co-founded Molymem, a breakthrough water filtration technology, which has already secured £1 million in investment to scale up its technology.   

The sensor, based on a 2D material called hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), is significantly more sensitive and accurate than previous designs. It can detect even subtle variations in breath patterns, such as those caused by asthma or sleep apnoea.

"Our sensor is like a highly accurate microphone for your breath," says lead author , a researcher at The University of Manchester. "It can pick up on the tiniest changes in airflow, providing valuable physiological information on an individual, for example related to their cardiac, neurological and pulmonary conditions as well as certain types of illness. "

How it works

The active material in the sensor is made of a hexagonal boron nitride ink, which has been designed by supramolecular chemistry to provide enhanced sensibility to water molecules. The ink is deposited between electrodes in the form of a thin film and then an alternating electric field is applied to the electrodes. When you inhale and exhale, the electrical signal of the film changes based on the local humidity, showing a characteristic “V shape” associated to the full breathing cycle. Changes in the V shape can therefore be attributed to changes in the exhaling-inhaling process, for example due to coughing, fever, runny and stuffy nose.

The new sensor has several advantages over existing technologies. It is more sensitive, meaning it can detect smaller changes in breath. It is also faster, with a response time of just milliseconds. And it is not affected by temperature or other environmental factors, making it more reliable for real-world use. Furthermore, it can be easily integrated onto face masks.

Potential applications

The researchers believe that their sensor has the potential to revolutionise the way we monitor respiratory health, and it could be used to track the effectiveness of respiratory treatments.

"This sensor has the potential to make a real difference in the lives of people with respiratory problems," says Dr. Liming Chen, Postdoc in who has worked on this project. "It could help us to diagnose diseases earlier, track the progression of diseases, and help making personalised treatment plans."

The researchers are now working on extending the technology to achieve high sensitivity and selectivity towards selected biomarkers found in the breath that are associated to diseases, for example respiratory ammonia.

They hope to see their technology in the hands of patients and healthcare providers in the near future.

The National Graphene Institute (NGI) is a world-leading graphene and 2D material centre, focussed on fundamental research. Based at The University of Manchester, where graphene was first isolated in 2004 by Professors Sir Andre Geim and Sir Kostya Novoselov, it is home to leaders in their field – a community of research specialists delivering transformative discovery. This expertise is matched by £13m leading-edge facilities, such as the largest class 5 and 6 cleanrooms in global academia, which gives the NGI the capabilities to advance underpinning industrial applications in key areas including: composites, functional membranes, energy, membranes for green hydrogen, ultra-high vacuum 2D materials, nanomedicine, 2D based printed electronics, and characterisation.

Today, the and The announced the nine recipients of the 2024 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK, including three Laureates and six finalists.

and are named among the three Laureates, who will each receive £100,000 in recognition of their work in Chemical Sciences and Physical Sciences & Engineering, respectively.

Now in its seventh year, the awards are the largest unrestricted prizes available to UK scientists aged 42 or younger. The awards recognise research that is transforming medicine, technology and our understanding of the world.

This year’s Laureates were selected by an independent jury of expert scientists from across the UK.

Professor Anthony Green, a Lecturer in Organic Chemistry from The University of Manchester, has been named the Chemical Sciences Laureate for his discoveries in designing and engineering new enzymes, with valuable catalytic functions previously unknown in nature that address societal needs. Recent examples include the development of biocatalysts to produce COVID-19 therapies to break down plastics, and to use visible light to drive chemical reactions. 

Rahul Nair, Professor of Materials Physics at The University of Manchester, was named Laureate in Physical Sciences & Engineering for developing novel membranes based on two-dimensional (2D) materials that will enable energy-efficient separation and filtration technologies. Using graphene and other 2D materials, his research aims to study the transport of water, organic molecules, and ions at the nanoscale, exploring its potential applications to address societal challenges, including water filtration and other separation technologies.

Internationally recognised by the scientific community, the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists are instrumental in expanding the engagement and recognition of young scientists and provide the support and encouragement needed to drive scientific innovation for the next generation.

, Founder and Chairman of Access Industries and Head of the Blavatnik Family Foundation, said: “Providing recognition and funding early in a scientist’s career can make the difference between discoveries that remain in the lab and those that make transformative scientific breakthroughs.

“We are proud that the Awards have promoted both UK science and the careers of many brilliant young scientists and we look forward to their additional discoveries in the years ahead.”

, President and CEO of The New York Academy of Sciences and Chair of the Awards’ Scientific Advisory Council, added: “From studying cancer to identifying water in far-off planets, to laying the groundwork for futuristic quantum communications systems, to making enzymes never seen before in a lab or in nature, this year’s Laureates and Finalists are pushing the boundaries of science and working to make the world a better place. Thank you to this year’s jury for sharing their time and expertise in selecting these daring and bold scientists as the winning Laureates and Finalists of the 2024 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK.”

The 2024 Blavatnik Awards in the UK Laureates and Finalists will be honoured at a black-tie gala dinner and award ceremony at Banqueting House in Whitehall, London, on 27 February 2024.

The (GEIC) helps companies progress and launch new technologies, products and processes that exploit the pioneering properties of graphene and other 2D materials.

Mr Khan was given a tour by Professor James Baker, CEO of , and met with application managers and technical specialists engaged in the use of tangible samples and cutting-edge equipment that bring products and applications to life.

He also held informal discussions with Professor John Holden, the University’s Associate Vice President for Special Projects, and the Vice Dean of Research and Innovation.  

To date, the GEIC has delivered more than 350 successful projects for over 200 companies and supported more than 50 spin outs.

Professor James Baker, CEO of Graphene@91ֱ��, said: “The University of Manchester is proud to be known as the home of graphene.  It is where it was first isolated by our researchers in 2004 and is the world’s first breakthrough 2D material.

“Through GEIC, we offer a dedicated translation centre that helps SMEs bridge the gap from lab to market - something that is not replicated anywhere else in UK academia.

“Our two-tier membership model also allows us to work on short feasibility projects, through to a long-term strategic partnership with multiple projects in different application areas.

“It was a pleasure to welcome Mr Khan to the centre to be briefed about some of the innovative work we are involved in, and to talk about our ongoing collaborations with major partners including the UAE and the Department for Business and Trade.”

Afzal Khan MP, said: “The GEIC has a remarkable success rate in delivering new projects.

���� is a truly world class facility supported by experienced and knowledgeable applications engineers and internationally renowned academics, working across a broad range of novel technologies and applications.

“Everyone involved in establishing the centre’s enviable reputation deserves immense credit for what they have achieved.    

“I am grateful to the University’s policy engagement unit, , for arranging an especially informative visit and look forward to returning soon.”

The recent partnership between , the , , and (GGT), supported by the and , has paved the way for the development of our University spinout, Graphene Innovations 91ֱ��’s GIM Concrete in the UAE. The product, enhanced by graphene and made with recycled plastic, promises to revolutionise the construction industry by reducing CO2 emissions and showcasing the circular economy in action. The signing ceremony, attended by key stakeholders including His Excellency Sharif Al Olama, Undersecretary for Energy and Petroleum Affairs, Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, symbolises a united effort to address climate challenges.

Waleed Al Ali, Chairman of GGT, sees this collaboration as a major milestone, stating, “This is an important step towards using GIM developed technology to build a Graphene-based GIGA Factory in the UAE.”

His Excellency Sharif Al Olama commented on the partnership, stating, “This MOU symbolises how various stakeholders can work together to address the challenges we are facing today when it comes to climate change, this is an excellent example of not only addressing the challenge but rather coming up with a commercially and economically viable solution.”

The CEO of GIM, Dr. Vivek Koncherry, expressed pride in the commercialisation of their graphene-based solutions, stating, “We are proud to see the commercialisation of our award-winning and groundbreaking graphene and AI-based solutions for sustainable applications that have been backed by decades of research undertaken in 91ֱ��, United Kingdon.”

In another initiative, Levidian and Tadweer are collaborating to decarbonise methane emissions in Abu Dhabi. The partnership aims to install Levidian’s LOOP technology at one of Abu Dhabi’s largest landfill sites. This first-of-its-kind pilot project will convert waste methane into hydrogen and carbon-negative graphene, with estimated emissions reduction of around 40%. If successful, the pilot could be scaled up to address emissions from an estimated 1.2 billion cubic meters of landfill gas over the next decade.

John Hartley, CEO of Levidian, highlighted the significance of the project, stating, “The utilisation of Levidian’s LOOP technology will allow Tadweer to clean up emissions while creating a revenue stream from the production of hydrogen and graphene that will ensure that the project pays for itself.”

Eng. Ali Al Dhaheri, Managing Director and CEO of Tadweer, emphasised the importance of the project in the context of a circular economy, saying, “In the lead up to COP28, it’s more important now than ever for Tadweer to become a global model for a circular economy alongside partners such as Levidian, as we create the foundations for a sustainable future.”

These partnerships emphasise the University of Manchester's commitment to fostering innovation and sustainable practices. Professor James Baker, CEO of Graphene@91ֱ��, summed up the sentiment, "We take immense pride in witnessing our partners and spinouts within our graphene eco-system achieve significant milestones, and it's an honour to host their team at our MASDAR building, the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) in 91ֱ��. These achievements showcase the potency of graphene and 2D materials, propelling sustainable solutions and catalysing innovation and business growth through impactful partnerships. I eagerly anticipate the next stages of development and the successful journey of bringing these transformative products to market in the coming months to create a more sustainable future."

Read more on the individual announcements here: |

• Water is everywhere. It’s essential to all life forms, so is ubiquitous. 
• It also carries enormous energy. 70% of solar radiation that reaches the surface of earth gets absorbed by water. This energy circulates with water around the globe and transfers into other forms of energy. 
• But most of the energy – for example, osmotic energy, stored in water is not exploited yet. Imagine if we could harness energy stored in water? 
• In 91ֱ�� – a city known for its rain – research led by Dr Qian Yang explores the fundamental questions around the structure and behaviour of water at the molecular level. 
• Using nanocapillaries made from graphene she is progressing underpinning research that could lead to the development of a brand-new form of renewable energy that could revolutionise sustainable living. 

The potential of water as a source of energy is vast. Hydroelectric power plants, for example, have been explored in large scale to harvest the kinetic energy of water, yet this technology causes significant changes to the local ecosystem. Which means, we still can’t harness the enormous amount of energy stored in water. As a result, this endless energy resource is largely untapped. 

The water-solid interface is the key to harnessing energy toward more efficient water-energy nexus. This requires better understanding of the interfacial water structures and their interactive properties. So far, this progress has been hampered largely because lack of understanding of water at the nanoscale. As a general rule of thumb, structure determines properties and therefore the best applications. Therefore, our first priority is to figure out the structure of nanoscale water. But how do we do it? 

Nanocapillary confinement: analysing water molecules at atomic level 
The answer is using nanocapillary confinement, a tool first identified by Sir Professor Andre Geim in 2016, and now the focus of Dr Qian Yang’s research. 

Using a 2D material capillary, Dr Yang is able to confine a single layer of water molecules. This enables Dr Yang’s team to start to detect the structure of water, and determine its properties, advancing our understanding of key fundamental questions such as how water molecules arrange themselves and transport, and how it responds to light and behaves under electric fields. This will further enable single molecular detection which is essential for many chemical and biological applications. 

Understanding the unique interaction between water and graphene 
In parallel, she is also exploring the unique interactions between water and graphene at the water-graphene interface. Graphene carries charges; and the charges interact with the ions in water solutions at the interfacial area. This means if you pour water through graphene surface, and attach electrodes alongside, you can generate electricity. Through her research, Dr Yang is determining how to make this process work more efficiently, in order to design the materials that best harvest flow induced electricity – either from rain droplets or water flow in a river. 

Leveraging the 91ֱ��’s expertise, equipment and connections 
While researchers across the world are undertaking similar fundamental analysis, Dr Yang’s research has an advantage. The nanocapillary devices conceptualized by Professor Geim and housed in 91ֱ�� is extremely sophisticated, enabling atomic confinement that’s proving difficult for other institutions to replicate. Alongside, to accelerate discovery Dr Yang has access to: the National Graphene Institute, the biggest academic cleanroom facility in Europe; the expertise of Manchester’s graphene community, the highest-density research and innovation community in the world; and a network of international collaborations. 

Leading discovery 
As a result of this capabilities, her team’s discoveries include capillary condensation under atomic scale confinement. For example, using a van der Waals assembly of two-dimensional crystals to create atomic-scale capillaries – less than four ångströms in height and can accommodate just a monolayer of water – Dr Yang has proven that the century-old Kelvin equation stands, rather than breaks down as expected. Dr Yang shows that this can be attributed to elastic deformation of capillary walls, which suppresses the giant oscillatory behaviour expected from the commensurability between the atomic-scale capillaries and water molecules. This finding provides a basis for an improved understanding of capillary effects at the smallest scale possible, which is important in many real world situations. For instance, for estimating the oil reserve worldwide. Her work also helps us to have better understanding of sandcastles, which are also hold tightly together by capillary force. 

Further to this, she has also explored ionic transport inside two-dimensional nanocapillaries to understand the mass transport and charge transfer process, for potential deionization and water purification applications. Overall, using combined nanocapillary devices with microfluidics system, together with precise electrical measurements, she examines: (i) capillary condensation inside nanocavities and modulated ionic transport; (ii) electricity generation induced by liquid flow through graphene surface; (iii) nanoconfined water structure and their properties. 

The future of energy harvesting 
Dr Yang’s work explores new physics and phenomena arise inside nanocapillaries, aiming at both better fundamental understanding of water at the atomic scale and working principles for designing more efficient energy harvesting devices at scale. 

By taking the research down to the atomic scale, she is progressing global understanding, and often confounding expectations – as in the case with the Kelvin equation. 

Her research will enable technologies in a wide range of fields, including single molecular sensing, medical diagnostics and energy harvesting. 
 

Dr Qian Yang 
is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Fellow at the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Her research explores the mass transport in 2D nanocapillaries enabled by van der Waals technology, molecular properties under spatial confinement, nanofluidics and electrokinetic phenomena at the water-graphene interface. She is also the recipient of the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship in 2019, Royal Society University Research Fellowship and the European Research Council Starting Grant. 

Recent relevant papers 

To discuss this research further contact Dr Qian Yang.

Discover how to access our world-leading research and state-of-the-art equipment. Visit our to find out about the National Graphene Institute and our other world-leading facilities. 
 

• Atomically clean interfaces: The new stamp design has enabled the creation of atomically clean interfaces between stacked 2D materials over extended areas, a significant improvement over existing techniques.
• Reduced strain inhomogeneity: The rigidity provided by the new stamp design has been shown to greatly reduce strain inhomogeneity in assembled stacks.
• Scalability: The team has demonstrated clean transfer of mm-scale areas of 2D materials, paving the way for the use of these materials in next-generation electronic devices.

Researchers at the University of Manchester have made a breakthrough in the transfer of 2D crystals, paving the way for their commercialisation in next-generation electronics. This ground-breaking technique, detailed in a recent publication, utilises a fully inorganic stamp to create the cleanest and most uniform 2D material stacks to date.

The team, led by from the , employed the inorganic stamp to precisely 'pick and place' 2D crystals into van der Waals heterostructures of up to 8 individual layers within an ultra-high vacuum environment. This advancement resulted in atomically clean interfaces over extended areas, a significant leap forward compared to existing techniques and a crucial step towards the commercialisation of 2D material-based electronic devices.

Moreover, the rigidity of the new stamp design effectively minimised strain inhomogeneity in assembled stacks. The team observed a remarkable decrease in local variation – over an order of magnitude – at 'twisted' interfaces, when compared to current state-of-the-art assemblies.

The precise stacking of individual 2D materials in defined sequences holds the potential to engineer designer crystals at the atomic level, with novel hybrid properties. While numerous techniques have been developed to transfer individual layers, almost all rely on organic polymer membranes or stamps for mechanical support during the transition from their original substrates to the target ones. Unfortunately, this reliance on organic materials inevitably introduces 2D material surface contamination, even in meticulously controlled cleanroom environments.

In many cases, surface contaminants trapped between 2D material layers will spontaneously segregate into isolated bubbles separated by atomically clean areas. "This segregation has allowed us to explore the unique properties of atomically perfect stacks," explained Professor Gorbachev. "However, the clean areas between contaminant bubbles are generally confined to tens of micrometres for simple stacks, with even smaller areas for more complex structures involving additional layers and interfaces."

He further elaborated, "This ubiquitous transfer-induced contamination, along with the variable strain introduced during the transfer process, has been the primary obstacle hindering the development of industrially viable electronic components based on 2D materials."

The polymeric support used in conventional techniques acts as both a source of nanoscale contamination and an impediment to efforts to eliminate pre-existing and ambient contaminants. For instance, adsorbed contamination becomes more mobile at high temperatures and may be entirely desorbed, but polymers cannot typically withstand temperatures above a few hundred degrees. Additionally, polymers are incompatible with many liquid cleaning agents and tend to outgas under vacuum conditions.

"To overcome these limitations, we devised an alternative hybrid stamp, comprising a flexible silicon nitride membrane for mechanical support and an ultrathin metal layer as a sticky 'glue' for picking up the 2D crystals," explained, second author of the study. "Using the metal layer, we can carefully pick up a single 2D material and then sequentially 'stamp' its atomically flat lower surface onto additional crystals. The van der Waals forces at this perfect interface cause adherence of these crystals, enabling us to construct flawless stacks of up to 8 layers."

After successfully demonstrating the technique using microscopic flakes mechanically exfoliated from crystals using the 'sticky tape' method, the team scaled up the ultraclean transfer process to handle materials grown from the gas phase at larger sizes, achieving clean transfer of mm-scale areas. The ability to work with these 'grown' 2D materials is crucial for their scalability and potential applications in next-generation electronic devices.

Recognising the significance of the breakthrough, The University of Manchester has filed a pending patent application to safeguard both the method and apparatus involved. The research team is now eager to collaborate with industry partners to assess the effectiveness of this method for the wafer-scale transfer of 2D films from growth substrates. They invite expressions of interest from equipment manufacturers, semiconductor foundries and electronic device manufacturers with 2D materials in their product roadmap. For enquiries, please contact contact@uominnovationfactory.com

The National Graphene Institute (NGI) is a world-leading graphene and 2D material centre, focussed on fundamental research. Based at The University of Manchester, where graphene was first isolated in 2004 by Professors Sir Andre Geim and Sir Kostya Novoselov, it is home to leaders in their field – a community of research specialists delivering transformative discovery. This expertise is matched by £13m leading-edge facilities, such as the largest class 5 and 6 cleanrooms in global academia, which gives the NGI the capabilities to advance underpinning industrial applications in seven key areas: composites, functional membranes, energy, membranes for green hydrogen, ultra-high vacuum 2D materials, nanomedicine, and characterisation.

Watching concrete dry may not be the most exciting pastime – unless it’s Graphene enhanced. Graphene – first isolated by researchers at The University of Manchester in 2004 – is the world’s first breakthrough 2D material. Its pioneering role has given Graphene iconic status and sparked a revolution in materials science with applications from water filtration and energy storage to transport and construction – including concrete.

Graphene is helping us reimagine cement. Very soon, you will be able to choose your preferred colour, texture and features. But more importantly and even beyond the aesthetics and functionality, it’s the growing global sustainability agenda that is creating renewed interest in the potential for Graphene-enhanced concrete.

The prize is clear. The construction industry is facing numerous challenges in the face of Net Zero targets, and one potential route to successful evolution is through the widespread adoption of advanced materials. The cement industry has one of the highest carbon footprints of any industrial sector, producing between 8-10% of global CO2 emissions. We are working on ways to mitigate the impact of the industry by using Graphene to substantially reduce the amount of cement, concrete and steel required in building projects – and find market-viable solutions to sustainability across the whole lifecycle of buildings and the built environment, from construction phase to operation and end-of-life.

From lab experiments to large-scale site trials, we have found our Graphene admixtures can deliver improvements in compressive, tensile and flexural strength in concrete, accelerated curing time, crack reduction and reduced water and salt permeation. Work is now ongoing towards verification and certification of Graphene-enhanced concrete to enable roll-out across the construction industry.

This follows breakthrough research by 91ֱ�� engineers who added tiny amounts of Graphene to concrete (‘Concretene’). It has been demonstrated at commercial scale with our GEIC industry partners, Nationwide Engineering, that this allows for reduction of up to 30% of material from a build project without impacting on its strength or integrity. This means Concretene is not only much greener but also potentially cheaper to use.

As we now move into real-world commercialisation of Graphene, we can see the increasing industry ‘pull’ for Graphene innovation, driven by sustainability, rather than the traditional technology ‘push’ of past advanced materials innovation.

91ֱ�� is the global home of Graphene and the University is actively supporting ongoing research, innovation and commercialisation through Graphene@91ֱ��, adopting open innovation (91ֱ�� innovation model) and supporting a growing ecosystem of startup companies at our accelerator hub – Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) which is based in The Masdar Building in 91ֱ��.

This open ecosystem is essential as there are no single Graphene solutions for the problems we are addressing – there are various types of ‘Graphenes’ and 2D materials that are best suited for many and different purposes and of course with concrete, there are also many variables from local water to local climate. There is still some significant “know-how” needed to get the right formulation.

We are still at the early stages of this work with concrete but we are now accelerating into Graphene enhanced applications, including in the UAE.

The Road to Commercialisation

Today, we are looking at Graphene enhanced polymer composite concrete (zero cement and water) with another GEIC partner, Graphene Innovations 91ֱ�� (GIM), as sustainability drives new momentum for concrete innovation, especially in the UAE. This may not be suitable yet for high-rise buildings but for road building and civil infrastructure, it has huge potential – and uses recycled plastic waste, adding another benefit of a reduction and re-use of waste materials, a growing problem in UAE and around the world.

GIM was founded by 91ֱ�� University graduate, Dr. Vivek Koncherry, who recently signed an MoU with Quazar Investment Company to create a new company in the UAE. This will be one of the most ambitious projects to date to commercialise graphene as it fast-tracks cutting-edge R&D into large-scale manufacture – an investment vision worth a total of $1bn.

This new venture will develop and produce premium, environmentally-friendly products using advanced 2D materials, including breakthrough Graphene-enhanced concrete that does not need cement or water and can be made using recycled materials. I believe this is a seminal moment for the commercialisation of Graphene as it demonstrates huge confidence in the potential for this advanced material to help lead our transition into a Net Zero world.

The GIM approach promises value creation and more – a smart and functional cement in different colours, textures and features, in which sensors and membranes could also be embedded – a convergence of the physical and digital aligned with the UAE’s smart city ambitions.

Of course, the construction sector will rightly ask about design codes, how a new material will be certified and its performance after 20 years. While we may not have all the data or engineering experience yet, GIM is prepared to take risks in small scale projects and is generating good results and data, and gaining a lot of confidence. I can see parallels with the adoption of carbon fibre, which is now almost ubiquitous, and those who believed at the time that we would never fly in ‘plastic planes’.

The UAE is rapidly emerging as the world’s innovation lab and test bench, and we love the ambition in the country. Abu Dhabi plays a vitally important role within the Graphene eco-system in which Masdar and the Khalifa University of Science and Technology are partnering with Graphene@91ֱ�� on research and commercialisation.

Our experience is that the GEIC is a catalyst for innovation and our 91ֱ�� innovation model helps scale this and nurtures a rapid ‘make or break’ approach to testing applications. Graphene is a great fit with the UAE’s vision and has the resources and talent required – the country aims to create the future as we can see clearly, in this Year of Sustainability.

The prestigious award ceremony, held in London on November 9, recognised and celebrated outstanding British entrepreneurship, firmly establishing GIM as a leader in sustainability and innovation.

The Innovator of the Year Awards, hosted by The Spectator, have become a hallmark in the UK's business and investment communities, attracting a growing number of entries each year. The award was well deserving of GIM's groundbreaking work in harnessing the power of graphene to drive sustainability and economic viability.

Earlier this month, GIM, alongside Economic Innovator of the Year finalists, was featured in . The episode delved into their expertise in manufacturing and engineering, with GIM's contributions highlighted from 27:30.

Graphene Innovations 91ֱ�� Ltd

GIM design graphene-based compounds and production systems that allow partners to commercialise graphene-enhanced products at scale, unlocking competitive advantage, sustainability, and cost reduction. Notably, GIM's work in developing graphene-enhanced concrete stands out as a game-changer for the construction industry, where concrete production contributes 8% of global CO2 emissions.

GIM Concrete, a pioneering product by the company, is a fusion of graphene, polymers, and additives. What makes it truly innovative is its manufacturing process, which eliminates 88% of CO2 emissions by abstain from the use of cement. Not only does it address environmental concerns, but GIM Concrete also boasts 4 times the compression strength of traditional concrete, is 30% lighter, and cures in a mere 2 to 4 hours, compared to the 28 days required for traditional concrete.

The company has also developed a sustainable waste upcycling platform, utilising graphene as an additive to transform ground waste tires and plastics. This approach allows for the creation of high-quality, durable products through traditional manufacturing processes, optimising both performance and sustainability.

Graphene Innovations 91ֱ�� Ltd was founded by Dr Vivek Koncherry, an alumnus, with their research and development centre located in The University of Manchester’s (GEIC). 

Vivek expressed his delight saying: “We are honoured to receive the Excellence in Sustainability award and grateful for the supportive environment in 91ֱ��'s graphene ecosystem and the focus of The University of Manchester on this core area of social responsibility. This recognition exemplifies the collaborative efforts and transformative potential of graphene-based solutions. Personally, my time as a senior research fellow at The University of Manchester, combined with recognising the fundamental role of sustainability in the University’s ethos, inspired me to working with graphene and the GEIC.

"From first proposing a graphene suitcase idea to recycling car tires into graphene floor mats, the journey has been very transformative with exciting future developments now taking place. With this recognition, GIM eagerly anticipates continuing its innovative journey, contributing to a sustainable future, and inspiring others to leverage the graphene ecosystem for positive impact."

What is graphene, and its link to 91ֱ��?

If you've ever used a pencil, you've unwittingly engaged with graphene. Discovered in 2004 by 91ֱ��-based researchers, Professor Andre Geim and Professor Kostya Novoselov, graphene is a one-atom-thick, two-dimensional crystal. Their pioneering work in isolating graphene from graphite earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. Today, 91ֱ�� known as the home of graphene, remains a hub for graphene research and applications, and GIM stands as a shining example of the city's continued contribution to groundbreaking technological advancements.

Proton transport is a key step in many renewable energy technologies, such as hydrogen fuel cells and solar water splitting, and it was also previously shown to be permeable to protons by 91ֱ�� scientists.

A new study published in has shown that light can be used to accelerate proton transport through graphene. Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms that is an excellent conductor of both electricity and heat. However, it was previously thought that graphene was impermeable to protons.

The researchers found that when graphene is illuminated with light, the electrons in the graphene become excited. These excited electrons then interact with protons, accelerating their transport through the material.

This discovery could have a significant impact on the development of new renewable energy technologies. For example, it could lead to the development of more efficient hydrogen fuel cells and solar water-splitting devices.

"Understanding the connection between electronic and ion transport properties in electrode-electrolyte interfaces at the molecular scale could enable new strategies to accelerate processes central to many renewable energy technologies, including hydrogen generation and utilisation," said lead researcher Dr. Marcelo Lozada-Hidalgo.

Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms is an excellent electronic conductor and, unexpectedly, was also found to be permeable to protons. However, its proton and electronic properties were believed to be completely unrelated. Now, the team measured both graphene’s proton transport and electronic properties under illumination and found that exciting electrons in graphene with light accelerates proton transport.

The smoking gun evidence of this connection was the observation of a phenomenon known as ‘Pauli blocking’ in proton transport. This is an unusual electronic property of graphene, never observed in proton transport. In essence, it is possible to raise the energy of electrons in graphene to such an extent that graphene no longer absorbs light – hence the ‘blocking’. The researchers demonstrate that the same blocking takes place in light-driven proton transport by raising the energy of electrons in graphene. This unexpected observation demonstrates that graphene’s electronic properties are important to its proton permeation properties.

Dr. Shiqi Huang co-first author of the work said, “We were surprised that the photo response of our proton conducting devices could be explained by the Pauli blocking mechanism, which so far had only been seen in electronic measurements. This provides insight into how protons, electrons and photons interact in atomically thin interfaces”.

“In our devices, graphene is being effectively bombarded with protons, which pierce its electronic cloud. We were surprised to see that photo-excited electrons could control this flow of protons”, commented Dr. Eoin Griffin co-first author.

Advanced materials is one of The University of Manchester’s research beacons - examples of pioneering discoveries, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships tackling some of the planet's biggest questions. 

When Gerdau sought an ideal location to work on disruptive ideas and solutions with the foremost experts in the field, the choice was clear—91ֱ��, a city renowned as the "home of graphene" and a historical hotbed of innovation since the industrial revolution. Gerdau's strategic plan laid the foundation for this momentous collaboration, with a vision to diversify revenue streams through new businesses and products complementary to their core steel chain. Among these value-adding components, graphene stood out as a material with transformative potential.

Joining hands with the GEIC in early 2019, Gerdau became an early adopter in the commercialisation journey of graphene and Gerdau Graphene emerged as the group's first advanced materials business, operating independently with its own governance and resources to foster rapid and autonomous growth. The collaboration, underscored by Gerdau's strategic decision to deploy its Research and Development team to the GEIC, not only fuelled technical innovation but also expedited their prototyping processes. The knowledge and resources from the GEIC played a pivotal role in this advancement, and the company witnessed a significant share of revenues.

James Baker, CEO of Graphene@91ֱ�� and Professor of Practice, said:

"Having Gerdau as a partner to the GEIC has been rewarding for all concerned – this is a company that has a strong heritage and also continues to pioneer through Gerdau Graphene. Gerdau’s work to functionalise graphene has created a supply of material that is industry-ready and is tuned to optimise performance in the specific application requested by the customer, and we are delighted that the partnership has been part of this journey.

The unique advantage of being located here in 91ֱ��, has enabled Gerdau to tap into the cutting-edge knowledge and resources available at the GEIC and the broader University, expediting our prototyping processes and creating an entirely new portfolio of graphene-enhanced additives and materials, opening up new markets and commercialisation opportunities."

The collaboration has allowed Gerdau to  extend applications of graphene to products within Gerdau's broader "ecosystem," reaching beyond the steel industry. The initial commercial applications were implemented in maintenance paints for the 16 Brazilian factories, packaging for construction nails, and mineral additives for projects involving key customers and partners in the state of Minas Gerais, located in the southeastern region of the country.

Alexandre Corrêa, Executive Director of Gerdau Graphene,  also shared his satisfaction for the ongoing partnership: "Our partnership with the GEIC marked our starting point in this journey into specialty chemicals and the development of novel additives with graphene. Our first research into material dispersion and our first application development into industrial paints were all started at the GEIC. From these projects we expanded into a vast network of over 6 laboratories in the UK and Brazil and strategic partnerships with clients and graphene suppliers having 91ֱ�� and the GEIC as a critical hub for our technical development. This network has turned graphene into a reality here in Latin America, leading to the development of several novel family of Additives and Masterbatches which we are currently selling in the region."

Gerdau Graphene has positioned itself as the first solution provider and developer of industrial scale additives focused on the incorporation of graphene in the Americas, bringing a unique blend of products and services to the market. This strategic move enables the company to make significant contributions to the development of graphene-enhanced products including polymers, paints and coatings, mineral additives, chemical additives, lubricants, and masterbatches. The incorporation of graphene in their products gives Gerdau Graphene a competitive edge, ensuring unmatched performance gains and benefits compared to conventional additives, in addition to generating a significant impact on sustainability,

The five-year partnership between Gerdau and GEIC facilitated rapid progress in the development of new graphene applications, showcasing the potential of collaborative efforts in driving technological innovation. Through their collective pursuit of disruptive ideas and inventive solutions, both companies have contributed significantly to the advancement of the graphene industry. As they continue to work in tandem, members of the GEIC are scheduled to visit Gerdau's facilities in Brazil in November, further solidifying their enduring partnership and underlining their commitment to developing graphene applications.

Advanced materials is one of The University of Manchester’s research beacons - examples of pioneering discoveries, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships tackling some of the planet's biggest questions. #ResearchBeacons

James Baker, CEO of Graphene@91ֱ�� has been conferred the title of Professor of Practice at The University of Manchester in recognition of his significant leadership and contributions to graphene and 2D materials. 

Under his leadership, Baker has realised the ambition of the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) creating something that is not replicated in UK academia.  

Opened in 2019, a year into his tenure of CEO, the GEIC accelerates lab to market development, seeding a fast-growing graphene economy. In just five years it has supported more than 50 spin outs and launched many new technologies, products and applications with industrial partners – including a graphene-enhanced concrete, which reduces C02 emissions by up to 30%, a revolutionary hydrogel for vertical farming, and a process to extract lithium from water for use in the battery-making industry. It had also created a significant impact on the local economy including new jobs, businesses and in gross added value to the 91ֱ�� region.    

Baker has overseen the consolidation of the highest-density graphene research and innovation community in the world, comprising more than 350 experts spanning various disciplines, including physics, materials science, chemistry, neuroscience. This community includes academics, engineers and application experts, who bridge the gap between academia and the real-world needs of businesses, and innovation leaders, investment experts, IP advisors, plus operational and specialist technical staff.  

This community, which is celebrated for fast tracking Technology Readiness Levels, centres around two bespoke buildings: the GEIC, and the £62m academic-led National Graphene Institute (NGI). 

The NGI is the epicentre for pioneering 2D discovery, and hosts class 100 and class 1000 cleanrooms, creating the world’s largest academic space of its kind. It is home to Nobel Prize-winning Professor Sir Andre Geim, who first isolated graphene in 2004 with Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov and who continues to support a world-leading community of fundamental science researchers. 

By driving the University’s reputation for commercialisation, Baker has ensured 91ֱ�� has maintained its reputation at the forefront of the global materials research revolution. This reputation has resulted in ambitious collaboration, such as the partnership with Khalifa University, to tackle the global challenges of water filtration and desalination, construction, energy storage, and lightweighting of materials. 

Professor Luke Georghiou, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at The University of Manchester, said: “The isolation of graphene at the University in 2004 created the opportunity to transform a wide range of sectors through its application. James has played a key role in establishing the pathway to commercialisation and social benefit and anchoring that in the home of graphene.

“As a result of his leadership, our University is firmly at the heart of the graphene lab-to-market success story and is the UK’s lead knowledge partner in the commercialisation of 2D materials.” 

James Baker, CEO at Graphene@91ֱ��, added: “I am honoured and humbled to receive this title, not least because the success of Graphene@91ֱ�� has been built on the backs and brains for a university-wide community of innovators and pioneers. I am lucky to be counted among them. 

“While it's nice to reflect,  now is the time to embark on the next chapter. We have proven graphene can deliver prosperity and progress. Now, we have to accelerate its adoption to tackle the greatest challenge of our time - climate change. We have to show that graphene and 2D material innovation doesn’t have to come at a premium but can play its part by delivering sustainability without compromise. Our focus is on driving innovation in support of sustainability and working in partnerships with governments, small businesses and large industry partners, including at COP28.” 

The title of Professor in Practice is bestowed upon experienced professionals, who share their skills and knowledge. They allow universities to directly connect with business practice and public policy, to enable actionable, positive impact on society. 

Baker has led the business-facing development of graphene and 2D materials at The University of Manchester since 2018. 

He joined The University of Manchester in 2014 as the Graphene Business Director at the NGI. Previously, he spent 25 years in industry where, most recently, he was Vice-President of Technology Collaboration Programmes and Managing Director of the Advanced Technology Centres for in the UK. 

Viscount Camrose started his tour at Engineering Building A, home to the new international research centre CRADLE (Centre for Robotic Autonomy in Demanding and Long-lasting Environments), where he announced the countdown to the centre’s official opening in November.

The Minister was guided by Professor Barry Lennox, The University of Manchester’s Centre for Robotics and AI Co-Director, where he learnt all about the interdisciplinary research going on in the centre, including a demonstration of a robot named Lyra, built to help transform nuclear infrastructure inspection.

Lyra was used to survey one of the radiologically contaminated ducts in Dounreay. It performed the equivalent of more than 400 air-fed suited entries into the site, equal to 2,250 man-hours. This capability reduced costs by an estimated £5m and it is predicted that similar surveys could save decommissioning costs by a further £500m in the future.

The Minister then took a tour of the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC), taking in its energy storage labs, printing lab facilities and construction materials testing facility, before making his way to ID 91ֱ�� and the location for the (TIC); a project which aims to link businesses to cutting-edge AI research and technologies to help enhance productivity.

John Holden, Associate Vice-President for Major Special Projects at The University of Manchester, said: “I was delighted to welcome the minister to The University of Manchester and to show him the leading-edge research and development activity we are undertaking in areas critical to the UK’s future economic growth and prosperity, including our pioneering work in AI and robotics.

“Funding research and development in universities is critical to regional and national efforts to improve productivity across all industries, and the visit was an opportunity to highlight to the minister how we are accelerating the translation of our research base into industrial application through initiatives such as GEIC and the Turing Innovation Catalyst.

“The visit was also an opportunity to highlight the major opportunity that ID 91ֱ�� represents for the region and UK – our plan to transform eight hectares of the North Campus into a commercially-led innovation district will create a world-leading innovation ecosystem around the University and has the potential to create 10,000 high quality jobs in research and development intensive sectors linked to the University’s capabilities over the next 10-15 years.”

The Minister for AI and Intellectual Property, Viscount Camrose, added: “Greater 91ֱ�� has long been at the forefront of science and innovation in this country, from the first splitting of the atom to the invention of the first computer.

“By engaging closely with partners including The University of Manchester, businesses and local government, we can continue to grow our innovation economy across the country and level-up the UK.

���� was great to see first-hand some of the fantastic Government-backed research in 91ֱ��, such as the development of graphene applications at the GEIC, CRADLE’s cutting-edge innovations in robotics, as well as some of the projects underway through our £100m Innovation Accelerators programme such as the Turing Innovation Catalyst, the Centre for Digital Innovation and the Immersive Technologies Innovation Hub.”

The visit ended with a round-table discussion about the . Led by Innovate UK on behalf of the Department for Science, Innovation Technology (DSIT), the pilot programme is investing £100m in 26 transformative R&D projects to accelerate the growth of three high-potential innovation clusters – Greater 91ֱ��, Glasgow City Region and the West Midlands.

Leaders from three AI-related projects backed by the Innovation Accelerator – the Turing Innovation Catalyst, led by The University of Manchester, the Centre for Digital Innovation, led by 91ֱ�� Metropolitan University, and the MediaCity Immersive Technologies Innovation Hub, led by The Landing at MediaCityUK – attended the round-table. They were joined by Cllr Bev Craig, Leader of Manchester City Council and Greater 91ֱ�� lead for Economy, Business and International, and representatives from Greater 91ֱ�� Combined Authority (GMCA).

Participants discussed how to strengthen connections between these projects and maximise their value, and other national initiatives to support AI and related technologies.

Cllr Bev Craig, Leader of Manchester City Council and GMCA Lead for Economy and Business, said: “Today’s visit provided a fantastic opportunity for the minister to learn more about the groundbreaking research and innovation happening right here in Greater 91ֱ��, and particularly at The University of Manchester.

“In recent years we have grown a reputation as a leading digital city-region, with AI as an important emerging sub-sector. As the impact of AI on our economy and society continues to grow, Greater 91ֱ�� is well-placed, with the potential to go even further.

“We also held a productive discussion about Greater 91ֱ��’s Innovation Accelerator programme and its AI-related projects. Through the Innovation Accelerator we are piloting a new model of R&D decision making that empowers local leaders to harness innovation in support of regional economic growth.”

A decade ago, scientists at The University of Manchester demonstrated that graphene is permeable to protons, nuclei of hydrogen atoms. The unexpected result started a debate in the community because theory predicted that it would take billions of years for a proton to permeate through graphene’s dense crystalline structure. This had led to suggestions that protons permeate not through the crystal lattice itself, but through the pinholes in its structure.

Now, writing in , a collaboration between the University of Warwick, led by Prof Patrick Unwin, and The University of Manchester, led by Dr Marcelo Lozada-Hidalgo and Prof Andre Geim, report ultra-high spatial resolution measurements of proton transport through graphene and prove that perfect graphene crystals are permeable to protons. Unexpectedly, protons are strongly accelerated around nanoscale wrinkles and ripples in the crystal.

The discovery has the potential to accelerate the hydrogen economy. Expensive catalysts and membranes, sometimes with significant environmental footprint, currently used to generate and utilise hydrogen could be replaced with more sustainable 2D crystals, reducing carbon emissions, and contributing to Net Zero through the generation of green hydrogen.

The team used a technique known as to measure minute proton currents collected from nanometre-sized areas. This allowed the researchers to visualise the spatial distribution of proton currents through graphene membranes. If proton transport took place through holes as some scientists speculated, the currents would be concentrated in a few isolated spots. No such isolated spots were found, which ruled out the presence of holes in the graphene membranes.

Drs Segun Wahab and Enrico Daviddi, leading authors of the paper, commented: “We were surprised to see absolutely no defects in the graphene crystals. Our results provide microscopic proof that graphene is intrinsically permeable to protons.”

Unexpectedly, the proton currents were found to be accelerated around nanometre-sized wrinkles in the crystals. The scientists found that this arises because the wrinkles effectively ‘stretch’ the graphene lattice, thus providing a larger space for protons to permeate through the pristine crystal lattice. This observation now reconciles the experiment and theory.

Dr Lozada-Hidalgo said: “We are effectively stretching an atomic scale mesh and observing a higher current through the stretched interatomic spaces in this mesh – mind-boggling.”

Prof Unwin commented: “These results showcase SECCM, developed in our lab, as a powerful technique to obtain microscopic insights into electrochemical interfaces, which opens up exciting possibilities for the design of next-generation membranes and separators involving protons.”

The authors are excited about the potential of this discovery to enable new hydrogen-based technologies.

Dr Lozada-Hidalgo said, "Exploiting the catalytic activity of ripples and wrinkles in 2D crystals is a fundamentally new way to accelerate ion transport and chemical reactions. This could lead to the development of low-cost catalysts for hydrogen-related technologies."

Advanced materials is one of The University of Manchester’s research beacons - examples of pioneering discoveries, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships tackling some of the planet's biggest questions. 

Despite being made entirely of layers of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern, natural graphite is not as simple as one may think. The manner in which these atomic layers stack on top of one another can result in different types of graphite, characterised by different stacking order of consecutive atomic planes.   The majority of naturally appearing graphite has hexagonal stacking, making it one of the most “ordinary” materials on Earth. The structure of graphite crystal is a repetitive pattern. This pattern gets disrupted at the surface of the crystal and leads to what's called 'surface states', which are like waves that slowly fade away as you go deeper into the crystal. But how surface states can be tuned in graphite, was not well understood yet.

Van der Waals technology and twistronics (stacking two 2D crystals at a twist angle to tune the properties of the resulting structure to a great extent, because of moiré pattern formed at their interface) are the two leading fields in 2D materials research. Now, the team of NGI researchers, led by Prof. Artem Mishchenko, employs moiré pattern to tune the surface states of graphite, reminiscent of a kaleidoscope with everchanging pictures as one rotates the lens, revealing the extraordinary new physics behind graphite.

In particular, Prof. Mishchenko expanded twistronics technique to three-dimensional graphite and found that moiré potential does not just modify the surface states of graphite, but also affects the electronic spectrum of the entire bulk of graphite crystal. Much like the well-known story of The Princess and The Pea, the princess felt the pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down beds. In the case of graphite, the moiré potential at an aligned interface could penetrate through more than 40 atomic graphitic layers.

This research, published in the latest issue of , studied the effects of moiré patterns in bulk hexagonal graphite generated by crystallographic alignment with hexagonal boron nitride. The most fascinating result is the observation of a 2.5-dimensional mixing of the surface and bulk states in graphite, which manifests itself in a new type of fractal quantum Hall effect – a 2.5D Hofstadter’s butterfly.

Prof. Artem Mishchenko at The University of Manchester, who has already discovered the said: “Graphite gave rise to the celebrated graphene, but people normally are not interested in this ‘old’ material. And now, even with our accumulated knowledge on graphite of different stacking and alignment orders in the past years, we still found graphite a very attractive system – so much yet to be explored”. Ciaran Mullan, one of the leading authors of the paper, added: “Our work opens up new possibilities for controlling electronic properties by twistronics not only in 2D but also in 3D materials”.

Prof. Vladimir Fal’ko, Director of the National Graphene Institute and theoretical physicist at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, added: “The unusual 2.5D quantum Hall effect in graphite arises as the interplay between two quantum physics textbook phenomena – Landau quantisation in strong magnetic fields and quantum confinement, leading to yet another new type of quantum effect”.

The same team is now carrying on with the graphite research to gain a better understanding of this surprisingly interesting material.

Image credit: Prof. Jun Yin (co-author of the paper) 

Advanced materials is one of The University of Manchester’s research beacons - examples of pioneering discoveries, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships tackling some of the planet's biggest questions. #ResearchBeacons

Firstly the assembled finalists and guests heard from Physics alumnus and founder of global flash-memory giant SanDisk, Dr. Eli Harari, who joined the awards event as a guest speaker, live from the USA. He described the aim of the competition, since it started in 2013, to encourage students, researchers and visionaries toward innovation and risk taking.

Eli Harari Graphene Enterprise Award Winners

The award winners were announced and presentations made by chair of the judging panel Professor Luke Georghiou, Deputy-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, The University of Manchester.

First prize of £50,000 was awarded to Liam Johnson, Ph.D. Student (Engineering) and his team (Ed Hayter) who are manufacturing the first on-skin device for wirelessly monitoring the cardiovascular activity of free-moving mice (using electrocardiography, or ECG).

Professor Luke Georghiou presenting first prize to Ed Hayter.

MouseAble will use screen printable graphene inks to engineer an on-skin, wireless ECG sensor for laboratory mice. This device would reduce animal burden and allow ECG acquisition immediately without need for recovery or invasive surgery. A non-invasive device will also enable the collection of better quality data, as removing the burden of an implant may reduce animal stress and the impact this has on the results. By providing a faster, more humane method of collecting data a non-invasive system could offer researchers freedom to be more ambitious with their experimental plans.

In second place and claiming the £20,000 prize was Aayush Chadha, Ph.D. Student (Graphene NOWNANO CDT) with Eye Venture, aiming to manufacture smart contact lens systems using 2D materials in order to deliver unobtrusive detection and monitoring of ocular and systemic diseases (glaucoma and certain types of neurodegeneration) which pose high social and economical costs.

This year again saw the inclusion of an additional prize that celebrates the University's position leading the world on sustainable development. The winners of the £10,000 Eli Harari Sustainability award were  Dinara Mangusheva, undergraduate student (Biomedical Science) and team (Luke Marden, Atif Riaz, Izehiuwa Ehimatie) with Aqua Catalysis. This venture aims to enhance the treatment of industrial wastewater by refining existing technologies and boosting photocatalysts through UV absorption.

Introducing the Eli Harari Graphene Enterprise Award 2023 Finalists

The three winning teams were selected by a panel of professional judges from a shortlist of five finalists all seeking to secure funding to drive their ideas forward. Watch the video to find out more.

The award is co-funded by the North American Foundation for The University of Manchester through the support of Dr. Eli Harari and his wife, Britt. It recognises the role that high-level, flexible, early-stage financial support can play in the successful development of a business targeting the full commercialisation of a product or technology related to research in graphene and 2D materials.

The Mayor of Greater 91ֱ��, Andy Burnham, inaugurated the conference, which sees more than 30 companies exhibiting their revolutionary graphene technologies. More than 200 experts from academia and industry will also deliver lectures at the conference. 

“We’re proud to welcome businesses and researchers from across the world to Greater 91ֱ�� for Graphene 2023”, said the mayor of Greater 91ֱ��, Andy Burnham. “Our city-region has been the driving force behind cultural and scientific innovations for over 200 years, and it’s fitting that we host the world’s 2D materials community as we approach 20 years since graphene was first discovered. I hope delegates get a sense of the exciting work happening right here in Greater 91ֱ�� to commercialise advanced materials.” 

The conference is held in the newly opened , the new home of Engineering and Materials at the University. Unrivalled in scale as a hub of engineering and materials expertise here in the UK, it combines 91ֱ��'s industrial heritage with new, purpose-built facilities, ideal for discovery and solving some of the world's most pressing issues. Delegates are also be offered tours of the and the , the flagship facilities for graphene and 2D materials research and development.  

Professor Vladimir Falko, the Director of the NGI, said, “91ֱ��’s National Graphene Institute and Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre stay at the forefront of graphene and 2D materials research and commercialisation, and we are glad that a major pan-European graphene conference is coming to the UK, despite all the uncertainties created by Brexit.” 

Professor Aravind Vijayaraghavan, the lead local organiser added, “We are placing special emphasis on attracting industrial and academic partnerships from around the world to invest and collaborate with the University, and this conference is the ideal opportunity for us to showcase our world-leading facilities and expertise in advanced materials and manufacturing which is key to a green, equitable and healthy future for us all.” 

The conference takes place at the University of Manchester on 27-30 June 2023. The conference marks 20 years since the first isolation of graphene at the University, by Professor Sir Andre Geim and Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov, who were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics “for ground-breaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene”. 

 is one of The University of Manchester’s  - examples of pioneering discoveries, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships that are tackling some of the biggest questions facing the planet. #ResearchBeacons.

Pictured above: Water-graphene quantum friction (Credits: Lucy Reading-Ikkanda / Simons Foundation) 

Advanced materials is one of The University of Manchester’s research beacons - examples of pioneering discoveries, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships tackling some of the planet's biggest questions. #ResearchBeacons

, founded by University of Manchester alumnus, , has recovered commercial grade lithium carbonate and graphite from black mass; a solid black powder containing a complex mixture of metals and impurities recovered from the recycling of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries.

Conducted in partnership with globally renowned precious metal recovery specialists, , and with access to Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre's (GEIC) world-leading capabilities and the support of its expert facilities team, the test work on 1 kg of black mass validates the Watercycle’s ground-breaking technology. It underpins the major contribution that deep tech university spin outs are playing in championing the UK’s ambitions for the energy transition and the attainment of a circular economy.

WaterCycle Technologies Ltd. are a Tier 2 partner of the GEIC, the University’s world-class, multi-million-pound engineering centre which provides industry-led development in graphene applications, bringing real-world products to market.

Watercycle CEO Dr Seb Leaper said, “To most people it is not obvious that one of the main barriers to achieving Net Zero is the availability of critical minerals like lithium. But we must ensure that the means of accessing these minerals is environmentally responsible. This requires sustainable primary production and efficient recycling technology, which is what we are creating at Watercycle. We are proud to be a University of Manchester spinout and are proud to be working with two fantastic northern companies in RSBruce and Weardale Lithium who are making the UK’s domestic lithium supply chain possible.” 

This breakthrough marks the first step forward in commercialising Watercycle’s technology.

James Baker, CEO of Graphene@91ֱ��, said: “The Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre provides partners within the rapid development and scale-up of R&D, the support to bring real world products to market. In particular, the gives companies like Watercycle Technologies the opportunity to bring innovation and research into the tough world of commercialisation, and to amplify prototypes through the conduction of leading edge benchtop experiments.

“By supporting partners in this way, we can also support 91ֱ��’s regional and national competitiveness, in turn attracting world-class businesses and high-quality jobs to the companies we’re helping to commercialise.”

in collaboration with RSBruce, demonstrating the significant opportunity to recover value-added products from Black Mass processing using Watercycle’s system and both companies are now in the process of finalising a developed pilot plan.

Corresponding to this phenomenal achievement, the team have found success in producing lithium carbonate from another source, establishing a step further to supporting UK’s ambitions to produce a domestic supply of lithium to power the domestic energy transition, and the UK Government’s goals of achieving net zero.

At its laboratory in the GEIC, the company applied its proprietary Direct Lithium Extraction & Crystallisation process (DLEC™) to successfully produce lithium carbonate crystals from brines, extracted from Weardale Lithium Limited’s existing geothermal boreholes at Eastgate, in County Durham. 

.

"The history of membrane development spans more than 100 years and has led to a revolution in industrial separation processes," says Professor Rahul Raveendran Nair, Carlsberg/Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair and study team leader. "In recent years, there has been some effort towards making membranes that mimic biological structures, particularly their ‘intelligent’ characteristics."

Now, in research published today in , scientists explain how they have developed intelligent membranes that can alter their properties depending on the environment and remember how permeable they were before. This means the membranes can adapt to different conditions in their environment and, more importantly, memorise their state, a feature which can be exploited in many different applications.

 A phenomenon known as hysteresis is the most common expression of memory or intelligence in a material. It refers to the situation where a system's current properties are dependent and related to its previous state. Hysteresis is commonly observed in magnetic materials. For example, a magnet may have more than one possible magnetic moment in each magnetic field depending on the field the magnet was subjected to in the past. Hysteresis is rarely seen, however, in molecular transport through artificial membranes.

"Coming up with simple and effective clean water solutions is one of our greatest global challenges. This study shows that fundamental molecular level insights and nanoscale materials offer great potential for the development of 'smart' membranes for water purification and other applications," said Professor Angelos Michaelides of the University of Cambridge.

In this work, the 91ֱ�� team in collaboration with scientists from University of Cambridge, Xiamen University, Dalian University of Technology, University of York, and National University of Singapore has developed intelligent membranes based on MoS₂ (a two-dimensional material called molybdenum disulphide) that can remember how permeable they were before. The researchers have shown that the way ions and water infiltrate the membranes can be regulated by controlling the external pH.

The membranes mimic the function of biological cell membranes and display hysteretic ion and water transport behaviour in response to the pH, which means they remember what pH they were exposed to before. “The memory effects we have seen are unique to these membranes and have never been observed before in any inorganic membranes,” said co-first author Dr Amritroop Achari of the University of Manchester.

The researchers demonstrated that the biomimetic effect could be used to improve autonomous wound infection sensing. To do this, they placed the membranes in artificial wound exudate, which simulates the liquid produced by wounds, and subjected them to changes in pH. The membranes only allowed permeation of the wound exudate at pH levels relevant to an infected wound, thus allowing them to be used as sensors for infection detection. The researchers say the new membranes can also be used in a host of other pH-dependent applications, from nanofiltration to mimicking the function of neuronal cells.

Co-author Professor Kostya Novoselov, Langworthy Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester and a professor at the Centre for Advanced 2D Materials, National University of Singapore said, “The uniqueness in this membrane is that its hysteretic pH response can be seen as a memory function, which opens a lot of interesting avenues for the creation of smart membranes and other structures. Research in this direction can play a pivotal role in the design of intelligent technologies for tomorrow.”

Pictured above: Artist's view of intelligent membranes with memory effects, courtesy R.Nair

Advanced materials is one of The University of Manchester’s research beacons - examples of pioneering discoveries, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships tackling some of the planet's biggest questions. #ResearchBeacons

Materials that strongly change their resistivity under magnetic fields are highly sought for various applications and, for example, every car and every computer contain many tiny magnetic sensors. Such materials are rare, and most metals and semiconductors change their electrical resistivity only by a tiny fraction of a percent at room temperature and in practically viable magnetic fields (typically, by less than a millionth of 1 %). To observe a strong magnetoresistance response, researchers usually cool materials to liquid-helium temperatures so that electrons inside scatter less and can follow cyclotron trajectories.  

Now a research team led by Professor Sir Andre Geim has found that good old graphene that seemed to be studied in every detail over the last two decade exhibits a remarkably strong response, reaching above 100% in magnetic fields of standard permanent magnets (of about 1,000 Gauss). This is a record magnetoresistivity among all the known materials.

Speaking about this latest graphene discovery, Sir Andre Geim said: “People working on graphene like myself always felt that this gold mine of physics should have been exhausted long ago. The material continuously proves us wrong finding yet another incarnation. Today I have to admit again that graphene is dead, long live graphene.”

To achieve this, the researchers used high-quality graphene and tuned it to its intrinsic, virgin state where there were only charge carriers excited by temperature. This created a plasma of fast-moving “Dirac fermions” that exhibited a surprisingly high mobility despite frequent scattering. Both high mobility and neutrality of this Dirac plasma are crucial components for the reported giant magnetoresistance.

“Over the last 10 years, electronic quality of graphene devices has improved dramatically, and everyone seems to focus on finding new phenomena at low, liquid-helium temperatures, ignoring what happens under ambient conditions. This is perhaps not so surprising because the cooler your sample the more interesting its behaviour usually becomes. We decided to turn the heat up and unexpectedly a whole wealth of unexpected phenomena turned up”, says Dr Alexey Berdyugin, the corresponding authors of the paper.

In addition to the record magnetoresistivity, the researchers have also found that, at elevated temperatures, neutral graphene becomes a so-called “strange metal”. This is the name given to materials where electron scattering becomes ultimately fast, being determined only by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. The behaviour of strange metals is poorly understood and remains a mystery currently under investigation worldwide.

The 91ֱ�� work adds some more mystery to the field by showing that graphene exhibits a giant linear magnetoresistance in fields above a few Tesla, which is weakly temperature dependent. This high-field magnetoresistance is again record-breaking.

The phenomenon of linear magnetoresistance has remained an enigma for more than a century since it was first observed. The current 91ֱ�� work provides important clues about origins of the strange metal behaviour and of the linear magnetoresistance. Perhaps, the mysteries can now be finally solved thanks to graphene as it represents a clean, well-characterised and relatively simple electronic system.

“Undoped high-quality graphene at room temperature offers an opportunity to explore an entirely new regime that in principle could be discovered even a decade ago but somehow was overlooked by everyone. We plan to study this strange-metal regime and, surely, more of interesting results, phenomena and applications will follow”, adds Dr Leonid Ponomarenko, from Lancaster University and one of the leading Nature paper authors.

UK-based Graphene Innovations 91ֱ�� Ltd (GIM), founded by University graduate Dr Vivek Koncherry, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with to create a new company in the UAE.

This exciting UK-UAE partnership - which highlights potential opportunity for UK innovators to access global investment and international markets and supply chains - will be one of the most ambitious projects to date to commercialise graphene as it fast-tracks cutting-edge R&D into large-scale manufacture – an investment vision worth a total of $1billion.

This new venture will develop and produce premium, environmentally-friendly products using advanced 2D materials, including breakthrough graphene-enhanced concrete that does not need cement or water and can be made using recycled materials.

Dr Vivek Koncherry, CEO of Graphene Innovations 91ֱ��, based in 91ֱ��’s (GEIC), said: "We are proud to be associated with Quazar so that we can assemble a powerful world-class team to provide us the opportunity to massively deploy our graphene-based technologies.”

Waleed Al Ali, CEO of Quazar, who will be active in helping bring the new company to successful, large-scale commercialisation, said: "The new graphene company will take a global lead in making environmentally friendly concrete and other products. We are glad that Quazar can play an active role in helping fulfil the UAE's His Highness Sheikh Saeed Bin Hamdan Bin Mohamed Al Nahyan's support for the UAE Vision 2030”.

James Baker, CEO of Graphene@91ֱ��, added: “This agreement with our GEIC partner Graphene Innovations 91ֱ�� and Quazar is a seminal moment for the commercialisation of graphene as it demonstrates huge confidence in the potential for this advanced material to help lead our transition into a net zero world.

���� is also a very proud moment for the Graphene@91ֱ�� community as it confirms that our innovation ecosystem is providing exactly the right platform to nurture pioneering R&D into graphene and other 2D materials that is world-class.

“91ֱ�� is known as the ‘home of graphene’ – but increasingly, it’s also being recognised as the home to its commercialisation potential. We are therefore able to form international partnerships, such as those in the UAE, based on this reputation; and from this position of strength we can place our city-region and the UK more generally into graphene’s global economy.

“As Greater 91ֱ�� further develops its innovation and manufacturing potential – all underpinned with the University’s leadership in advanced materials - this city-regional will have great opportunities with access to international supply chains, foreign investment and global markets.”       

As part of this ambition a new ‘Sustainable Materials Translational Research Centre’ is set to be created by the multi-million pound Greater 91ֱ�� Innovation Accelerator programme. The new centre is a partnership with the University’s, the, the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, and Rochdale Development Agency, and aims to connect local businesses to national opportunities, all underpinned with outstanding materials research.

The scheme is linked  to the zone and a said “… The University of Manchester's expertise in material science” could potentially support a northern economic powerhouse.

Furthermore, the graphene innovation ecosystem at The University of Manchester has recently been cited as an exemplar in attracting inward investment into the local regional economy – and therefore helping to boost the UK’s ‘levelling up’ agenda. The spotlight comes in a report entitled,   published by universities think-tank the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI).

A strategic partnerships that is highlighted is the ambitious agreement between the University and Abu Dhabi-based Khalifa University of Science and Technology which aims to deliver a funding boost for graphene innovation to develop new sustainable technologies. Attracting international funding to the North-West is also helping the UK government level-up R&D spending across the nation.

This prestigious five-year position is part of the Academy's Research Chair scheme, which promotes collaboration between academia and businesses to tackle engineering challenges. Prof. Nair is one of seven U. K. researchers awarded this position.

Professor Nair, of the and the , will partner with Carlsberg Group to develop next-generation membranes for filtration and separation technology specifically for the food and beverage sector. The project will explore how graphene and other 2D materials-based membranes can be used for more healthy, sustainable, and responsible plant-based food production.

Graphene and other two-dimensional materials offer unique advantages in separation and purification technology due to their ability to fabricate membranes with tunable pore sizes, controllable surface wetting functionalities, and fast water and solvent transport. Professor Nair's group is already collaborating with several leading industries to develop graphene-based membranes for water desalination, filtration, and oil separation. This partnership with Carlsberg aims to further expand this research direction into the food and beverage industries. 

Professor Nair said: “Adopting a more plant-based lifestyle can lower the impact of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and water usage. By investigating and applying novel membrane technology, the project will target the selective removal of sugars, alcohol and acids to obtain a more balanced plant-based diet. It will strengthen the general food sector by providing better plant-based food and beverage products.” 

“Carlsberg has a tradition of supporting creative ideas through collaborations and helping to overcome engineering challenges”, said Professor Nair. “The National Graphene Institute (NGI) at the University of Manchester is the world's largest academic space of its kind, solely dedicated to 2D materials research and covers the full scale of research from fundamentals to prototypes.” 

Dr. Birgitte Skadhauge, Vice President at Carlsberg Research Laboratory, said “this new partnership, enabled by a substantial donation from Carlsberg Foundation, will contribute to Carlsberg’s vision and commitment to sustainability, a healthier future, and zero carbon emission in all breweries by 2030 and in the value chain by 2040 via Carlsberg’s Together Towards ZERO and Beyond program.”

Dr. Arvid Garde, Director of Brewing Technology at Carlsberg Research Laboratory added “this research direction has the potential to significantly impact the food and beverage industry, as well as other industries that require advanced separation and purification technologies.

on each can be found on the Academy website.

in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research has shown that graphene with nanoscale corrugations of its surface can accelerate hydrogen splitting as well as the best metallic-based catalysts. This unexpected effect is likely to be present in all two-dimensional materials, which are all inherently non-flat.

The 91ֱ�� team in collaboration with researchers from China and USA conducted a series of experiments to show that non-flatness of graphene makes it a strong catalyst. First, using ultrasensitive gas flow measurements and Raman spectroscopy, they demonstrated that graphene’s nanoscale corrugations were linked to its chemical reactivity with molecular hydrogen (H2) and that the activation energy for its dissociation into atomic hydrogen (H) was relatively small.

The team evaluated whether this reactivity is enough to make the material an efficient catalyst. To this end, the researchers used a mixture of hydrogen and deuterium (D2) gases and found that graphene indeed behaved as a powerful catalyst, converting H2 and D2 into HD. This was in stark contrast to the behaviour of graphite and other carbon-based materials under the same conditions. The gas analyses revealed that the amount of HD generated by monolayer graphene was approximately the same as for the known hydrogen catalysts, such as zirconia, magnesium oxide and copper, but graphene was required only in tiny quantities, less than 100 times of the latter catalysts.

“Our paper shows that freestanding graphene is quite different from both graphite and atomically flat graphene that are chemically extremely inert. We have also proved that nanoscale corrugations are more important for catalysis than the ‘usual suspects’ such as vacancies, edges and other defects on graphene’s surface” said Dr Pengzhan Sun, first author of the paper.

Lead author of the paper Prof. Geim added, “As nanorippling naturally occurs in all atomically thin crystals, because of thermal fluctuations and unavoidable local mechanical strain, other 2D materials may also show similarly enhanced reactivity. As for graphene, we can certainly expect it to be catalytically and chemically active in other reactions, not only those involving hydrogen.”

“2D materials are most often perceived as atomically flat sheets, and effects caused by unavoidable nanoscale corrugations have so far been overlooked. Our work shows that those effects can be dramatic, which has important implications for the use of 2D materials. For example, bulk molybdenum sulphide and other chalcogenides are often employed as 3D catalysts. Now we should wonder if they could be even more active in their 2D form”.

Advanced materials is one of The University of Manchester’s research beacons - examples of pioneering discoveries, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships tackling some of the planet's biggest questions. #ResearchBeacons

The spotlight comes in a report entitled, which has been authored by Dr Alexis Brown for the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI). Dr Brown is Head of Global Education Insights at the British Council and is calling for UK universities to leverage global connections to help drive local growth.

The report highlights where this collaboration is already being achieved. For example, the strategic, long-term relationship-building between The University of Manchester and regional civic stakeholders plus international partners, such as those based in Abu Dhabi.

This type of relationship has, for example, led to an ambitious agreement between the University and Abu Dhabi-based Khalifa University of Science and Technology which aims to deliver a funding boost to graphene innovation that will help tackle the planet’s big challenges. This project has also won praise from senior figures in the UK government.

Much of the focus of this international collaboration on advanced materials has been around the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) which is a unique innovation accelerator based at The University of Manchester.

And, as well as supporting collaboration in the Middle East, the HEPI report also points out that the “… GEIC’s development has in turn generated further funding from a range of international and domestic partners, including the Australian-based supplier of graphene products First Graphene, the Brazilian graphene startup Gerdau Graphene, surface-functionalised graphene specialists Haydale and advanced engineering materials group Versarien.

“GEIC will also form a cornerstone element of the new £1.5 billion , alongside the University’s , which focuses on industrial biotechnology and industry-facing biomanufacturing…”

James Baker, CEO of Graphene@91ֱ��, said: ����’s fantastic to see that 91ֱ��’s graphene innovation ecosystem has been highlighted in a national policy report that outlines how universities can bring inward investment into the regional economies they serve.

���� has been five years since the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre opened its doors and our success in taking 2D materials from lab-to-market is clearly demonstrated by the many international partnerships we have formed - and the significant investment that these partners are making to drive graphene-inspired R&D in our region.

“These international research and innovation collaborations are creating new products, new businesses and new jobs. This all adds new value to our regional economy - so boosting the UK’s ‘levelling up’ ambitions.”

Advanced materials is one of The University of Manchester’s research beacons - examples of pioneering discoveries, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships tackling some of the planet's biggest questions. #ResearchBeacons

Haydale were early adopters and among the very first partners to sign up and join the GEIC when it opened its doors and embarked on its journey of commercialisation in 2018. At the time interest in graphene was growing in the commercial world; but it remained to be seen just how ready industry was in adopting graphene into existing products – or go one step further and use it to develop new and disruptive technologies.

Now, as the partnership enters a sixth year both organisations are delighted to see the progress working in collaboration has brought to the industry, particularly through the adoption of plasma functionalisation technology and commercialisation of graphene and other 2D materials, as James Baker, CEO of Graphene@91ֱ�� explains:

“Too often graphene has been seen as a magic dust that can be sprinkled into a product to transform its performance. Even if you’re lucky and achieve positive results, this ad hoc approach is usually non-replicable or able to be developed with a reliable quality control to earn market confidence.

“Haydale’s pioneering work to functionalise graphene has created a supply of material that is industry-ready and is tuned to optimise performance in the specific application requested by the end-user and we are delighted that the partnership has been part of this journey.”

Alongside their industry leading test facilities, as part of the partnership agreement, the GEIC will continue to use one of Haydale’s HT60 plasma reactors, which has been fundamental in growing the knowledge of functionalisation and its importance in unlocking the potential of graphene and other 2D materials. The clean chemistry process offers a way of activating inert materials, so they perform in application but in an environmentally-friendly way.

Access to unique engineering knowhow, world-class science and specialist R&D capability has seen the maturity of joint developments between Haydale and the GEIC most notably the graphene-enhanced carbon composite body panels for the BAC Mono R road-legal sports car, technology that Haydale has now seen application in composite tooling with Prodrive and resin infusion for sports and leisure. More recently, the teams have developed novel coating processes combining Haydale’s prepreg and ink products and helped to optimise Haydale’s 3D printing product range for volume application.

Commenting on the continued partnership, Keith Broadbent CEO of Haydale said: “We have been working with the GEIC from the very beginning to enhance graphene and nanomaterials and bring them into a commercial space. I am excited to see what the next stage of the partnership will bring. We have seen a seismic shift from graphene push to market pull as more customers know what they want. Customers are driving momentum and together we can continue the commercialisation journey.”

This is a sentiment shared by James, who added: “Five years on from the opening of the GEIC the market landscape for nanomaterials has matured quickly, and advanced materials are recognised as being critical in providing solutions to the big global challenges.

“Haydale’s vision has always been to provide the graphene supply chain with a premium product that can add real value – and they know exactly how to do this.”

The ongoing partnership will continue to build trust with wider industry and provide a solid foundation for the adoption of graphene and other 2D materials as advanced materials become increasingly critical in providing solutions to some of the biggest global challenges.

Graphene, a two-dimensional carbon material, is a game-changing UK discovery and its properties make it one of the most important breakthroughs in recent memory. Graphene is a wonder material, with incredible electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties.

Prizes of £50,000 and £20,000 will be awarded to the individuals or teams who can best demonstrate how their technology relating to graphene or other 2D materials could be applied to a viable commercial opportunity. We will also be including an additional prize that celebrates the University's position as one of the leading institutions in the world on sustainable development.

Applications will be judged on the strength of their business plan to develop a new graphene-related business. The award then becomes seed funding to allow the candidate to take the first steps towards realising this plan. It recognises the role that high-level, flexible early-stage financial support can play in the successful development of a business targeting the full commercialisation of a product or technology related to research in graphene.

The final deadline for completed competition entries is midday on Friday 16 June 2023.

Eli Harari Graphene Enterprise Award 2023: introduction and overview

Join us on Tuesday 9 May and hear from Tony Walker, Deputy Director of the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre, who will give an overview of the competition, and share with you hints and tips as to what the judges will be looking for in your application.

You will learn about the support available to support you with your application and how to access this.

We're also pleased to welcome and introduce you to a previous winner of the competition, who can share with you their experience and how they have progressed with their idea since being involved with the Harari programme.

Key Dates*

• Monday 13 February - competition opens for expressions of interest
• Tuesday 9 May - information session for competition entrants
• Week of 29 May - meet with application experts from GEIC
• Week of 5 June - meet with commercialisation experts
• Friday 16 June - entry deadline, 12pm
• Wednesday 21 June – Finalists notified
• Monday, 26 June - Finalists invited to pitch to Mock Panel
• Monday 3 July – Mock Panel pitch
• Tuesday 4 July- Finalists invited to pitch in the Final Judging Panel
• Friday 7 July - Final Judging Panel 1-4pm.
• Friday 14 July - Winners Awards Event 3.30-5pm.

*timings may vary 

The researchers have shown that the formation of these graphene particles is governed by a complex interplay between different forces such as viscosity, surface tension, inertia and electrostatics. Prof Vijayaraghavan said: “We have undertaken a systematic study to understand and explain the influence of various parameters and forces involved in the particle formation. Then, by tailoring this process, we have developed very efficient particles for adsorptive purification of contaminants from water”.

Graphene oxide (GO), a functionalised form of graphene which forms a stable dispersion in water, has many unique properties, including being a liquid crystal. Individual GO sheets are one atom thin, and as wide as the thickness of human hair. However, to be useful, they need to be assembled into complex 3-dimensional shapes which preserves their high surface area and surface chemistry. Such porous 3-dimensional assemblies of GO are called aerogels, and when filled with water, they are called hydrogels.

The researchers used a second liquid crystal material called CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide), to aggregate GO flakes into small particles of graphene oxide hydrogels, without needing to reduce them to graphene. This was achieved by dropping the GO dispersion in water in the form of small droplets into a solution of CTAB in water. When the GO droplets hit the surface of the CTAB solution, they behave very similarly to when a jet of hot smoke hits cold air. The GO drop flows into the CTAB solution in the form of a ring, or toroid, because of differences in the density and surface tension of the two liquids. 

By controlling various parameters of this process, the researchers have produced particles in the shape of spheres (balls), toroids (donuts) and intermediate shapes that resemble jellyfish. Dr Yizhen Shao, a recently graduated PhD student and lead author of this paper, said: “we have developed a universal phase diagram for the formation of these shapes, based on four dimensionless numbers – the weber, Reynolds, Onhesorge and Weber numbers, representing the inertial, viscous, surface tension and electrostatic forces respectively. This can be used to accurately control the particle morphology by varying the formation parameters.”

The authors highlight the significance of these particles in water purification. Kaiwen Nie, a PhD student and co-author of the paper, said: “We can tune the surface chemistry of the graphene flakes in these particles to extract positively or negatively charged contaminants from water. We can even extract uncharged contaminants or heavy metal ions by appropriately functionalising the graphene surface.”

Grant Shapps, The Secretary of State for the UK’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), has recently been on a visit to the Middle East, which included the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where he met representatives from a partnership between The University of Manchester and UAE’s Khalifa University.

The ambitious 91ֱ��-Khalifa partnership is part of the Research & Innovation Center for Graphene and 2D Materials (RIC-2D) which is looking at ways to apply graphene and related advanced materials to technologies that will help make our world more sustainable, including water desalination, emission-busting construction materials, energy storage and lightweighting applications.

Grant Shapps visited the state-of-the-art research facilities and on his , the Secretary of State said: “Graphene can be used in everything from touchscreens to reinforcing steel. Made first in 91ֱ��, its importance is now being realised around the world. I enjoyed seeing how Khalifa University is further developing graphene uses for the future, in partnership with The University of Manchester.”

James Baker, CEO at Graphene@91ֱ��, said: ���� was great to co-host the Secretary of State and the UK delegation on their visit to meet our partners at Khalifa University.

���� was a very positive meeting that focused on graphene products and applications. Our conversation covered the heritage of the right through to the creation of the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre, a 91ֱ�� facility set up in partnership with UAE-based Masdar to accelerate the commercialisation of graphene and related 2D materials.

“We also discussed our joint work with the RIC-2D programme and the ambitious commercial opportunities that are supporting the drive towards a sustainable future, including our latest project around creating membrane technology in support of clean water.”

The Kahlifa delegation meeting the Secretary of State also included Professor Sir John O’Reilly, President of Khalifa University; Dr Arif Al Hammadi, Executive Vice President; Dr Steve Griffiths, Senior Vice President for Research and Development and Professor of Practice; Fahad Almaskari, Engagement Director; Fahad Alabsi, Associate Director, Commercialization, RIC-2D Research Center.

During Grant Shapps’ visit to the region the . The Clean Energy Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has now been signed by the two nations and will support the .

Advanced materials is one of The University of Manchester’s research beacons - examples of pioneering discoveries, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships tackling some of the planet's biggest questions. #ResearchBeacons

NERD is a standalone company, spun out from , formerly Tier 2 partners of the GEIC and responsible for the initial development of Concretene, a graphene-enhanced admixture for concrete that saves significantly on CO2 emissions and overall project costs.

In December, to help drive the programme of research and development required to bring Concretene to full commercial use.

The Tier 1 agreement provides for use of a dedicated lab within the Masdar Building, state-of-the-art concrete testing facilities and access to the unrivalled academic and engineering expertise in nanomaterials housed at The University of Manchester, the home of graphene.

Co-founder of NERD Alex McDermott is a civil engineering graduate of the University and is excited about his return to North Campus to deliver what he hopes will be the start of a new generation of sustainable construction materials.

“I’m a 91ֱ�� lad from Failsworth and I did my degree here, so it’s great to be back and helping to design solutions for an industry that urgently needs to decarbonise,” he says.

“We’re looking to build on the work we’ve already done with the GEIC in lab trials and real-world projects and take Concretene on to the next stage of full commercial rollout. There’s still a journey to go on - R&D in this area is challenging - but the partnerships we’re building with the University and with high-profile industry clients give us the best chance of success.”

James Baker, CEO of Graphene@91ֱ��, said: “We have been working with Nationwide Engineering from the very beginning to help develop Concretene – and therefore delighted to welcome NERD to the GEIC as a Tier 1 partner. This is an important milestone in this ambitious project and one we can all be very proud of.

“In the past 18 months, we have rapidly gone from lab to pilot stage - and then scaled up to create ‘living labs’, including a pioneering pour just outside the GEIC. But we are still at a relatively early stage along the road to commercialisation.

“This new Tier 1 partnership will greatly help Concretene achieve its full potential to deliver a game-changing material to help us build more sustainably in the future – we look forward to taking this programme to the next stage of delivery.” 

NERD envisions a three-year journey to the roll-out of Concretene to the wider construction industry, alongside technical partner Arup – the globally renowned provider of engineering and design services for the built environment - and leading infrastructure bodies including Heathrow and 91ֱ�� Airports, Network Rail, National Highways and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

These early adopters will see immediate benefits through reductions in embodied carbon, while assisting in the programme of laboratory work and large-scale field trials that will ultimately prove the reliability and reproducibility needed for successful commercial deployment of Concretene.

Matthew Lovell, Director at Arup, said: “Continued innovation in the production of concrete and leaner design techniques are needed to support the construction industry’s journey towards net zero carbon emissions.

“Arup is extremely interested in Concretene’s potential to support transformative change in the built environment. Imagine what concrete with both enhanced engineering performance and substantially reduced carbon impact could contribute to our industry.”

Professor Bill Sampson, Chief Scientific Officer, GEIC, said: “I’m delighted to see Nationwide joining the GEIC as a Tier 1 partner. I look forward to working with them, with the support of academic colleagues from across the University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering, to better understand and deliver the full potential promised by graphene-enhanced cementitious materials.”

Main picture: (l-r) Matthew Lovell, Director at Arup; Alex McDermott, co-founder NERD; Rob Hibberd, co-founder NERD; Dave Evans, Chief Financial Officer, NERD; Alan Beck, Head of Communications, NERD