Engineering news
MPs have raised concerns about the lack of industrial progress at commercialising scientific research into graphene, despite high amounts of public funding.
The Science and Technology Select Committee questioned government this week on the benefits of the £120 million that has been invested in graphene research during the last five years.
Graphene is a thin layer of pure carbon that has many potential uses because it is light, tough, strong and a good conductor. Potential applications for the material, first isolated in 2004 at the University of Manchester, range from better sporting equipment to flexible display screens, electric circuits and solar cells.
Lucy Neville-Rolfe, minister for energy and intellectual property, said the funds had gone towards commercialising research and to raise awareness of the material. “Graphene is obviously a brilliant British breakthrough, it’s also disruptive technology. We felt the need to invest in research and institutes, product development and demonstration,” she said.
She added that £38 million is being invested in the National Graphene Institute (NGI) to harness R&D, while £20 million is being spent on the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC), which will be inaugurated in 2018 to help commercialise the use of graphene.
An investment of £50 million has also been made towards process innovation at the graphene centre in Sedgefield, as well as some additional money for doctoral training. Neville-Rolfe said: “The Institute is encouraging private sector investment. Innovate UK has done a lot to raise awareness amongst businesses.”
MPs also questioned the relationship between academia and industry and the stage graphene was at towards commercialisation. Paul Mason, director of emerging and enabling technologies for Innovate UK, said: “It’s in a typical place for an early stage technology, many companies won’t know what it is, they won’t know how to use it in their own particular applications. You have to raise awareness of the opportunity and then help the companies to explore the particular properties.”
He admitted that a prominent obstacle in the commercialisation of graphene is that graphene behaves differently in different applications, making it difficult to control costs of production and maintain a supply chain. Businesses will also find it difficult to guarantee the performance of products because of these inconsistencies, he said.