Graphene centre to open at Surrey

The University of Surrey announced yesterday it will establish a graphene centre within its Advanced Technology Institute (ATI), expanding and consolidating the university’s graphene research and manufacturing capabilities.

The centre has been designed as a means of furthering research into the uses and manufacture of graphene across industries, such as high frequency electronics, flexible and transparent electronics, smart coatings such as emissivity and barrier layers, energy generation and storage, electrical interconnect technology, antennas and within calibration standards, a university statement says.

“Together with industrial and academic partners, we can combine our expertise in nano-materials and graphene

ATI director Ravi Silva

The centre will feature state-of-the-art photo thermal deposition technology which produces large scale electronic-grade graphene on wafer-scale substrates.

The thermal deposition tool is designed to perform both steps in creating electronic-grade graphene, catalyst deposition and graphene growth, which saves the need to transfer the sample between machines. As the sample is kept in a vacuum, the grown material is of higher quality.

“The opening of our new centre will help ensure that our graphene research is focussed on the practical benefits and applications of this material across industries,” said Ravi Silva, director of the ATI.

“Together with industrial and academic partners, we can combine our expertise in nano-materials and graphene to advance technologies such as electronic devices, supercapacitors, solar cells, OLEDs and printed transistors,” he said.

The centre has received over £1.2million of funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, in collaboration with a variety of industrial and academic partners