Graphene - made in Manchester

24 May 2013

A 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 Centre, brings together the world-class 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 from academics at the University.

Although the ‘Scotch Tape’ method of making graphene – peeling layers from a stick of graphite using sticky tape – is still widely used, 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 materials. Although there are a large number of graphene-production companies worldwide, some of these provide an inferior quality of material.

Dr Belle said: “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.”