Graphene: How Manchester became home to a wonder material

October 22, 2004, is etched into the memory of professors Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov. That day, the two researchers at the University of Manchester were having one of their regular Friday night meet-ups, where they carried out experimental science not necessarily linked to their day jobs.

They removed some flakes from a lump of bulk graphite with sticky tape and noticed some flakes were thinner than others. It was the moment when the “wonder material” graphene was isolated for the first time. The discovery catapulted Geim and Novoselov to the world’s attention and, six years later, earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics.

It also sounded the starting gun on a global race to commercialise graphene. Graphene is a single atomic layer of graphite, a crystalline version of carbon used in pencils, that is arranged in a hexagonal lattice. It is stronger than steel, more conductive than copper and more flexible than rubber. It is also so thin that it has been described as two-dimensional.

At the time, it was predicted that the miracle material would eventually become as common as plastic. And it has been used in everything from plane wings that can de-ice themselves to graphene-enhanced asphalt and treatments for patients with strokes and other brain disorders. But difficulties in producing graphene at an industrial scale mean its full potential is yet to be realised.

However, 20 years after it was discovered, many now feel use of the material is at a tipping point. And, fittingly, it is Manchester where many new game-changing graphene discoveries are taking place. In 2015, the £61m National Graphene Institute opened its doors. The research institute enables academics and industry to work side-by-side.

Four years later, the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) was opened in the University of Manchester’s £60m Masdar Building. Since 2019 it has helped more than 55 new businesses to develop and launch new technologies, products and processes that make use of graphene.