Engineering news
China and South Korea are commercialising the so-called “miracle material” graphene far more effectively than Britain – despite the lead our universities took in its development.
A new policy statement from the IMechE warns that despite UK academic institutions “leading the world” in graphene development, the country's commercialisation of the material has been “woeful”. For example, a total of more than 7,500 patents concerning graphene have been filed. However, just 54 are from the UK – or less than 1%. China holds 2,200 and South Korea more than 1,700. Samsung alone holds 350 more graphene patents than the UK itself.
Biomedicine, electronics and composites are all fields where graphene is expected to have a great impact. But the UK government and industry must work collaboratively with academia to develop a coherent strategy if the country is to reap the benefits, the IMechE said.
One future use of graphene could be to replace ordinary glass windows with photovoltaic, meaning buildings could be covered in glass which is fully transparent but capable of collecting energy for heating and lighting. Graphene could also potentially help create batteries which charge in seconds, or used to “print” electronic devices like mobile phones onto material.
Graphene is the thinnest and – purportedly – the strongest material ever created. It is just 0.33nm thick, is harder than diamond and about 300 times harder than steel. To put this into context, it would take the weight of an elephant balanced on a needle point to break it.
Dr Helen Meese, head of materials at the IMechE, said: “At the moment, there’s a very real possibility that this incredible British material could one day be best known for never fulfilling its enormous potential. UK industry, with the help of government, needs to take a lead.
“The UK is at the very forefront of graphene research, but academics are increasingly concerned that little is being done to encourage industry to develop practical uses. This must change.
“The graphene community has to agree on a timescale for commercialisation now and develop a clear road map for ongoing research and development. The UK must also establish how it intends to compete in terms of market share and mass production.
“If these issues are not addressed soon, the UK could miss out on the limitless potential of the material it has spent so long developing.”
While the name “graphene” was first cited in 1962 to describe a single carbon layer, it was not until 2004 that the material’s true potential was uncovered by Professors Geim and Novoselov from Manchester University, when they demonstrated that graphite could be separated into single layers using sticky tape. Since then it has been proposed that graphene could enhance existing technologies as well as having the potential to develop new fields of engineering and science.