Pay huge investment in the UK in graphene, says Nobel laureate

Pay huge investment in the UK in graphene, says Nobel laureate

Scientists, the Nobel Prize for his work won the miracle material graphene, told £ 50 million public investment dividends for the United Kingdom to reap

Last year a team from the University of Manchester won the Nobel Prize in physics, to isolate and measure the properties of graphene this technology.

A year later, the government realized the potential of a substance - a sheet of carbon just one atom thick - that scientists and engineers say they may do everything to create plastic to touch cheaper and more efficient.

George Osborne this week announced an investment of £ 50 for a research center to support the marketing material to make miracles, with the aim to make products in the UK.

"It 's. the strongest, thinnest, the best material known to science, to be used in all kinds of microchips in the aircraft wing march " Osborne told in his speech at the Conservative Party conference on Monday. "We will have a national research program that Nobel prize fund for his discovery of the British Labor British factory. "

Konstantin Novoselov, who won the Nobel prize along with his colleagues Andre Geim from Manchester, told the investment is 50 million pounds a "smart move, " which, if used properly, could reap economic dividends, and again the UK is a magnet for the world's. best researchers of graphs.

Graphene is a sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb structure. Billions of graphene layers on each other more familiar forms of graphite crystals, stacked used in mining.

But the structure of graphene's. simply denies its unequaled physical and electronic properties. It conducts electricity to a million times improved than copper and is transparent to visible light known as any other driver. And that all drivers, and more elastic.

It is expected that to the attention of major manufacturers consider Samsung's. world graphene sheets the size of a large TV and a flexible touchscreen was created by researchers at Rice University in Texas. Snaps Airbus at Paris Air Show with its futuristic aircraft, with the transparent membrane that allows the wall of the

What truly pushed to higher levels of excitation graph is the combination of conductivity, strength and transparency in a single material. Novoselov and Geim knowledge 's. began deceptively easy to isolate the devices in 2004, behind studying with colleagues, the crystals of graphite. These scientists would use tape to peel a layer above the graphite and the use of powerful microscopes on the surface of the crystal under consideration. Instead of the crystal, Novoselov took one of the pieces of tape are used, which would otherwise be discarded.

Then began their experiments with graphite and tape.

"Just lean the graphite, remove it and there is a thin layer of graphite on the left side on the tape. Solito atom 's. many thick crust should always be, " he told. "To be honest, we never thought we could achieve in monolayers. Many people thought it would be unstable and you may not have everything. "

Novoselov and Geim graphs scientists knew that their early experiences, but no one believes that a single layer may be isolated and studied to be, or electronic equipment to take. Other scientists were skeptical of the research Geim and Novoselov 's,. the results of experiments they later win a Nobel Prize, which was rejected by a magazine to win. The paper later appeared in the top journal Science.

The first applications of graphene are likely to be rare or replacement of less efficient materials in electronics. LCDs, for example, you may put a layer of indium oxide and tin graph that is costly to conduct electricity on its surface. Graphs could replace the less efficient electrical conductors such as copper and gallium arsenide devices in the interconnection of integrated circuits and transistors. "For the future it would be nice, an application that uses these properties to see each other," told Novoselov. "It 's. very '. s may be flexible, flexible electronics, which may be very robust. "

The funding of £ 50 million hub is at a critical moment in the development of devices that attracted worldwide interest. David Bott, director of innovation programs in the Technology Strategy Board, a state agency to develop a business plan, told the conviction showed that the government money 's. hi-tech growth. "It 's. looking for a way to connect cutting-edge research at the forefront of commercial products and ensure that the path of one may be found on the other as short as possible. You may '. t fault their logic, or desires. "

Graph has told on the list of the Technology Strategy Board 's. many new technologies and Bott, they would anyway be a priority in the coming years, but the attention of the Treasury continue this process faster. "The idea of ​​this center is to test to get a way, science is in the United Kingdom and the electronic materials and experimental growing small businesses in the area, we connect as quickly as possible, " told Bott

Are exactly how the money is distributed between the Board of Directors, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Ministry of Finance be agreed. There is no guarantee the money will go to the University of Manchester, despite his reputation in the field.

Novoselov, it is clear that the only way the hub works is that if the money is not too sparse. "Is £ 1 million here and there won 't. create a difference. It's. all individual researchers happy, but won '. s to create a statement in terms of marketing and applications. "

In particular, he hopes that the money again, the relationship between universities and industry in wonderful Britain, which he says in the last two decades, has refused to investigate and develop the company. "We need to examine this difference and somehow 's. not clear how. In the US,. this culture of spin-offs, which don '. t exist only in the United Kingdom. "

A research center can have the firm intention of the government's. interest in technology and the United Kingdom was a good put to invest fit, says Novoselov.

Technology companies, students and teachers from research institutes world-class reputation to come into their territory. United States, including places like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

In Europe, Cambridge University and the Max-Planck-Institute are also very attractive. Novoselov told the government could lead to an equally attractive graphene research in the UK with his latest investment, which could recruit other senior scientists about the world.

"It 's. a smart move to create money in technology. There is a improved chance of the economy before, instead of investing in small bits and pieces such as repairing roads or in other ways. With the technology, you to invest in the future and back numerous times instead, if you invest in other things, or immediately. "