The University of Manchester recently received a £3m grant from Lloyd’s Register Foundation for research and development of advanced applications for 2D materials.
The growing range of 2D materials is an exciting area of research
The five year grant will be used to study ways to combine one-atom-thick materials such as graphene, and to produce exclusive materials capable of handling the challenges of commercial and industry applications.
These types of materials hold promise in numerous safety applications spread over a range of industries such as energy harvesting, gas separation, flexible optoelectronics, and water desalination.
Lloyd’s Register Foundation is a charity which provides funding to promote research and education related to engineering, and supports safety-improvement projects relating to life on land, at sea and in the air.
The title of the grant is 'Designer Nanomaterials assembled from Individual Atomic Planes', and the research will focus on the development of prototype nanomaterials possessing custom functional properties by using a range of bulk crystals to assemble atomic planes.
The researchers involved in this endeavour are from several universities worldwide, and include Harvard University, National University of Singapore, ETH Zurich and the Japanese National Institute for Materials Science. The team will be led by the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010, Sir Andre Geim, who demonstrated the extraordinary properties of graphene for the first time.
Sir Andre Geim and his colleagues at The University of Manchester moved onto discovering several other 2D materials after the successful isolation of graphene in 2004. All of the newly discovered 2D materials possess unique and exotic properties.
When these 2D materials are combined into single-layer stacks known as heterostructures, designer materials can be created that can be customized to suit the challenges of industry.
Professor Geim said: “Our consortium combines the strength of several leading groups from around the world who made their names in research on graphene, other atomically-thin materials and their heterostructures."
“This area has now matured and is ready for applications. We plan to exploit the breakthrough discoveries made by our groups over the last five-10 years and endeavour into unknown territories, aiming at opening new research fronts and developing fundamentally new technologies. At every step, we will try to align our research efforts with LRF charitable goals.”
In August 2014, after the publication of the Foresight Review in Nanotechnology: the next industrial revolution, Lloyd’s Register Foundation opened a global call for proposals. So far, the Foundation has provided £9m in grants to three global consortia. These grants provide research support and doctoral training, which will help realize the goals of the Foundation.
The Foundation’s Managing Director Professor, Richard Clegg, said:
We are delighted to be working with Andre Geim and the University of Manchester on this exciting project.