{"id":2196,"date":"2019-09-09T16:31:21","date_gmt":"2019-09-09T15:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/science-engineering\/?p=2196"},"modified":"2023-06-21T09:25:05","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T08:25:05","slug":"guest-post-the-graphene-age-how-manchester-is-leading-uk-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/science-engineering\/2019\/09\/09\/guest-post-the-graphene-age-how-manchester-is-leading-uk-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest post: The Graphene Age\u2019 – how Manchester is leading UK innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester\u2019s expertise in advanced materials \u2013 including the highly disruptive potential of graphene \u2013 will be showcased later this month at the Transatlantic Aerospace Symposium<\/a> organised by British-American Business Connections and backed by multinational corporation Boeing, which will also feature the RAF\u2019s Red Arrows team. Graphene and Manchester\u2019s advanced materials expertise will also be part of the international innovation conference hosted in the USA called CAMX<\/a>, which focuses on development in composites.<\/p>\n

Here David Hilton, Head of Business Development at MIDAS, explains why Manchester has unique expertise when it comes to advanced materials.<\/p>\n

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David Hilton of MIDAS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Greater Manchester is the UK\u2019s largest city region outside London and both its history and its future are steeped in innovation. It is here where the first industrial revolution began, where the atom was split, the computer was born and, more recently, the \u2018Home of Graphene\u2019<\/a> was established \u2013 so it\u2019s no wonder the saying \u2018what Manchester does today, the rest of the world does tomorrow\u2019 has been repeated countless times throughout the years.<\/p>\n

Benefitting from diverse specialisms across manufacturing, digital and creative industries, life sciences and financial and professional services, Manchester is a magnet for global companies looking to innovate, particularly in advanced materials<\/a> where Greater Manchester is truly world leading.<\/p>\n

With a rich history of industry and academia working together to develop and commercialise composites, technical textiles, materials for demanding environments, coatings, light alloys and, most recently, 2D materials like graphene, it\u2019s unsurprising that Manchester is the UK\u2019s hub for advanced materials research, with The University of Manchester hosting prestigious facilities like the Henry Royce Institute<\/a>, the Aerospace Research Institute<\/a>, the National Graphene Institute<\/a> (NGI), the National Composites Certification and Evaluation Facility<\/a>, the BP International Centre for Advanced Materials<\/a> and the recently opened Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre<\/a> (GEIC – pictured above), which is a globally unique facility for industry to pilot, produce and commercialise graphene-enabled products.<\/p>\n

But what is graphene? In simple terms, graphene is a single atomic layer of carbon. It was first isolated in Manchester by scientists Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov, who were rewarded with the Nobel Prize for Physics for the achievement. Graphene\u2019s properties led it to be dubbed a \u2018wonder material\u2019, as it is the strongest, stiffest and thinnest material yet known, and is electrically and thermally conductive, impermeable and transparent, so offering new possibilities across multiple applications.<\/p>\n

In Manchester, a dedicated innovation community is working with industry to rapidly move from laboratory to pilot production to commercialisation \u2013 and this is what the GEIC was designed for. Industrial partners make use of the unique suite of pilot production equipment to prototype new applications and products, test them, prove them and launch them to market ahead of the competition.<\/p>\n

Applications being explored include composite materials, new battery technologies, sensors, surfaces and coatings, printed electronics, biomedical applications, membranes and electronics.<\/p>\n