£3.5m for graphene research
UNIVERSITY of Manchester graphene researchers have been awarded a £3.5m grant.
The money, from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), will fund research on membranes that could have applications related to sustainability, energy, health, defence and food security.
The university is about to start work on a £61m research hub dedicated to commercialising graphene – the super-light, super-strong material discovered by Manchester’s Nobel prize winning scientists Professors Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov.
Molecules cannot permeate a perfect sheet of graphene and when platelets of graphene are built into more complex structures, highly selective membranes can be generated, said the university.
The aim is, together with industrial partners, to produce working membranes that could be used to detect the chemical signals produced by agricultural pests, or to stop power stations releasing carbon dioxide.
The research is led by Professor Peter Budd, of the School of Chemistry. He said: “We have also invented a range of polymers – called Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity (PIMs) – which form membranes that are very good for separating gases and organic liquids.
“These are of interest, for example, for removing carbon dioxide from power station flue gases, or for removing organic compounds from water. By combining PIMs with graphene, we expect to produce membranes with even better performance under long-term conditions of use.
“We will also be looking at practical ways of using the ability of graphene to act as a perfect barrier in, for example, food packaging, and we will be building graphene into sensors for detecting human diseases and agricultural pests.”
