existing markets. So, you may get single-
gure improvement in one area, but, by
doing that system integration, there’s
opportunity for double-digit bene ts in
your chosen market.”
GRAPHENE FOOTWEAR
Another fascinating application closer to
home can be seen in the sports footwear
developed by inov-8, a Cumbrian-based
company specialising in shoes for
mountain or (as it’s properly known) fell
running. As might be imagined, such an
application makes enormous demands of
shoes, in terms of grip and endurance.
Traditionally, this meant the soles of the
shoes had to be made of a softer, stickier
rubber than would be used on normal
training shoes, as this provided the
necessary grip and allowed the runner to
‘feel’ the surface more effectively.
The downside of this material,
however, is that, being softer, it wore
away quickly, meaning runners were
faced with the prospect of either buying
new shoes on a regular basis or wearing
inappropriate footwear that could
potentially lead to injury.
It was with this in mind that the
Trials are now
underway at the
Frongoch site to
build on metal
company approached experts at The
University of Manchester, enabling the
brand to infuse graphene into rubber.
The upshot is that inov-8 has now
developed rubber outsoles for running
and tness shoes that, in testing, have
outlasted 1,000 miles of high impact and
are shown to be 50% harder wearing.
By using graphene in high-pro le
applications such as these, it is hoped
that other potential users who might
otherwise have perceived the material
as too ‘blue-sky’ for them will have their
minds changed and start to embrace its
undoubted possibilities.
As James Baker puts it: “I think
graphene is reaching the in ection point,
or tipping point, in terms of its adoption.”
INTO THE FUTURE
As for of where the future might lie,
both for the GEIC and graphene itself,
Baker believes unequivocally that there
remains an awful lot more development
to come for the material, as well as the
market. “We’re starting to use the term
‘graphenes’,” he comments, “as that
GRAPHENE PROS AND CONS
Scarce metals - such as tin, silver, tungsten and indium – are found in a wide range of everyday
objects around us. They can be found in your computer, in your mobile phone, in many of the
plastics around you and in almost all electronic equipment. Society is highly dependent on scarce
metals and this dependence has many disadvantages. These metals are complicated to extract,
dif cult to recycle and so rare that several of them have become ‘con ict minerals’, helping to
promote wars and oppression. Also, they are dif cult to recycle pro tably, since they are often
present in small quantities in various components, such as electronics.
A survey at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, suggests there are
potential solutions that can replace many of the metals. Rickard Arvidsson and Björn Sandén,
researchers in environmental systems analysis at the university, have examined substituting carbon
nanomaterials. These substances – the best known of which is graphene – are strong materials with
good conductivity, like scarce metals.
There are potential technology-based solutions for replacing 13 out of the 14 metals in
question by carbon nanomaterials in their most common applications. The technology development
is at different stages for different metals and applications, but in some cases, such as indium and
gallium, the results are very promising,” Arvidsson comments.
This offers hope,” adds Sandén. “In the debate on resource constraints, circular economy and
society’s handling of materials, the focus has long been on recycling and reuse. Substitution is a
potential alternative that has not been explored to the same extent and, as the resource issues
become more pressing, we now have more tools to work with.”
Yet, according to guidance from the EC, there are also environmental and health risks. “While
the potential use and safety of CNTs carbon nanotubes has been investigated for some time,
much less is known about graphene, partly because of early dif culties in increasing its production
and because it is in an early stage of development,” cautions the EC in its ‘Science for Environment
Policy’ guidelines. “Now, with increasing research, the adoption of different types of graphene
materials in different industries will increase the likelihood of human exposure to this material.”
Once inside a living cell, the material could interact with or disrupt cellular processes and cause
damage. Arvidsson accepts there are questions still to be answered: “Carbon nanomaterials are
only a relatively recent discovery and, so far, knowledge is limited about their environmental impact
from a lifecycle perspective,” he concedes.
James Baker.
CEO Graphene@
Manchester
represents the fact that not only are
there many different forms of graphene,
but there are in fact many different types
of ‘2D materials’ following on from the
discovery of graphene.
“Potentially, there are as many
as 5,000 such materials that can be
isolated,” he adds. “If you think about
stacking those together with other 2D
materials in a heterostructure, you
can end up with an entire family of 2D
materials.” What seems increasingly clear
The strength of
these rubber
soles was greatly
increased by
adding graphene.
is that the GEIC – alongside the National
Graphene Centre and all the other
resources devoted to this technology –
represents a new approach to creating
an ecosystem for the material’s use
and development in the UK.
At the same time, a suitably cautious
Baker emphasises that these are still
early days for the technology, pointing
out: “It’s come a long way in a short
period. Having only been isolated in
2004, graphene is still a teenager.”
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