The University of Manchester has been awarded a £3 million research grant to develop breakthrough applications for various 2D materials, graphene included. The five year grant, from charity Lloyd’s Register Foundation, will aim to examine how combining one-atom-thick materials could create unique materials, customized for the demands of industry and commercial applications like flexible optoelectronics, gas separation and water desalination.
Sir Andre Geim, the Physics Nobel prize laureate, will lead a consortium that includes Harvard University, National University of Singapore, ETH Zurich and the Japanese National Institute for Materials Science. Geim states that the subject area has now matured and is ready for applications. The consortium plans to exploit the breakthrough discoveries made by its groups over the last 10 years and endeavour into unknown territories, aiming at opening new research fronts and developing fundamentally new technologies.