A University of Manchester spin-out company producing high-quality graphene and other 2-D materials will bring applications using the wonder material closer to reality.

2-DTech, based at the University’s Innovation Center, is located in the world’s foremost center for graphene research and development and brings together the expertise of Nobel laureates Professor Andre Geim and Professor Kostya Novoselov with a state-of-the-art production facility.

Headed up by graphene researcher Dr. Branson Belle, the company sells graphene across the world as well as meeting the growing demand for the world’s thinnest material from academics at the university.

Graphene, first isolated in 2004 at The University of Manchester, is the world’s thinnest, strongest, and most conductive material, and has the potential to revolutionize a huge number of diverse applications; from smartphones and ultrafast broadband to drug delivery and computer chips.
The University provided the start-up capital for 2-DTech and its innovation company (UMI3) Chief Executive Clive Rowland comments, “There’s a strong market demand for high quality graphene of a consistent nature and a growing interest in other 2-D crystals.

“A number of researchers, especially Dr. Branson Belle, who had been researching 2-D materials and making graphene for a long time, became interested in the business side. Therefore we have a motivated core of know-how to form the basis upon which to set-up something sustainable completely outside of the academic cleanroom facilities. We are now busy developing the business.”

Although the famous “Scotch Tape” method of making graphene – peeling layers from a stick of graphite using sticky tape – is still widely used within research labs, 2-DTech offers more advanced scalable production methods like Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD).

One of the key features about 2-DTech is the quality of their materials. Although there are a large number of graphene-production companies worldwide, some of these provide an inferior quality of material.
The company also offers a range of business solutions including consultancy, product testing, and industrial collaboration.

Dr Belle says, “At 2-DTech, we provide graphene solutions to enable the graphene revolution to happen. Given that Manchester is the home of the industrial revolution, it is quite fitting that the graphene revolution began here.”

Release Date: June 14, 2013
Source: University of Manchester