Antonio Hélio Castro Neto gave a talk on graphene at the event. He started work on the material in the US but has now moved to Signapore to further the research. The level of committment of the government of Singapore to R&D is very impressive (see my editorial article in last week’s issue for more about the investment issues). Graphene has a huge range of potential applications and opportunities, but it’s not clear which will be the “low hanging fruit” and will be the first to be a commercial opportunity.
The material is very strong, and has high electrical and thermal conductivity (the reisitivity is less than silver). It is thin enough that it is transparent. Graphene can also be used in combination with other materials and the idea of “two dimensional” materials can also be supported with other elements. Making the material in large sheets is being developed – the priniciples of different methods are established and the industry is now scaling up.
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Unfortunately, a minor IT glitch, combined with lack of access to our VPN meant that our notes for this talk were lost, which was a shame.
Graphene was recently described, in the FT if I remember correctly, as having properties that are so exciting that the material has proved unsurpassed in separating VCs from their money! (BR)
