Here at the University of Manchester
researchers have uncovered what some are calling one of the greatest
discoveries
of the 21st century an innovation so
small it can barely be seen
This is graphene a man-made reworking of an
element found in every organic thing on Earth, Carbon
So graphene is the world's first
two-dimensional material everything around us the world is three-dimensional
which means
it's got a length, a width and a height. Graphene is two-dimensional which means it's
just got a length and a width like a single sheet of atoms
so it's like sheet of paper but a million times thinner than that
Why does that make it so special?
So graphene's got this amazing list of superlative properties
it's a long list which is the
thinnest material in the world, it's the lightest, it's the strongest, it's the
best conductor of electricity, it's the best conductor
of heat etc etc
Since graphene was first named in 1962
scientists, researchers, industrialists and even science fiction writers have
speculated
on it almost limitless potential but there was just one problem:
no-one could actually produce it
then in 2004 two university professors
Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov took a radical but simple step
that put Manchester on the map and earned them
a Nobel Prize in Physics
The first easy way of
making graphene was discovered here at the university by Andre and Konstantin
which was basically to use some sticky tape like sellotape
stick it to a piece of graphite and then you just peel off
And this was just an ordinary piece a graphite, just a rock graphite that you
mine out of the ground then you peel off
one layer of that graphite which is graphene and you put it down on various
surfaces and then you can look at it, you can play with it, you can make things
with it
So can we go see some graphene?
and graphene production has gone decidedly upscale from those
early days - now it's created inside custom clean-room
on the University's campus using the silicon conduit to spit graphite
into single layers
what we see here is you have
flakes of graphite and graphene on top of a silicon wafer
and if you look here you'll see some dark blue areas so these are quite thick
tens of layers of graphene and then as you go thinner and thinner the color goes lighter and lighter
So if you look at the lightest
sheets here, they're single sheets of carbon so that's the graphene
so what we do is we have to go hunting round to find the really really thin
stuff
So this is graphene hunting?
The researchers have even created a liquid graphene
they hope can be used to print electronic circuitry
potentially removing the need for copper and silicon
graphene can be used in a variety of different applications everything from
structural
applications like aircraft or cars to
consumer electronics, mobile phones, screens, for example
medical applications, drug delivery, wound healing,
But despite all that promise there are still barriers
graphene might be one of the world's most innovative materials
but it doesn't come cheap one tiny fleck of graphene made from one of these
bits of graphite
will set you back about a thousand pounds but
that hefty price tag isn't totally deterring researchers
who say a cheaper way to use graphene is to incorporate it with other
materials
so it adopts some of the characteristics
That promise of power
is happening right here at the University of Manchester's national
graphene Institute
a research production facility being set up between private industry
and the UK and EU Parliament's
partnership is very important
because we need to understand needs and requirements of the end users and the
supply chain as well
so as part of the National Graphene Institute we have a large
area just for commercial companies with nearly
10 thousand square feet of space for partners to work alongside the scientist
alongside the supply chain companies
what we want companies to do is to take that science and turn it into products and
processes
and that will open up the commercial opportunities for
applications of graphene going forward
What industries does graphene have the possibility of revolutionising?
Well, sea water could be easily desalinated
the weight of our satellites, planes and cars could be dramatically cut and
they'd be rust-free for ever
Graphene has the potential to absorb radioactive
waste
and it could be perfect for a whole new generation of smartphones
add to that, batteries could be recharged in nano-seconds