Graphene Week 2014
Last week was marked by Graphene Week 2014, one of the largest graphene events. This year, the conference was hosted at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg by the Graphene Flagship. With 450 participants, the conference was sold out.
Bringing together an impressive list of speakers, the meeting addressed fundamental studies of graphene and related two-dimensional materials, applications of graphene and 2D materials in electronics, photonics, spintronics, and sensing, applications of graphene in energy, including photovoltaics, energy storage, fuel cells and hydrogen storage, large scale graphene production, graphene-based composite materials, graphene-related health and environment research, and applications of graphene in biomedical solutions.
Some of the flagship work package leaders were on site, describing the aim and progress of their section of the billion-euro project. For example, Herre van der Zant of TU Delft talked about the work package “Sensors”, in which the industry sees great potential. Graphene can be made into a good sensor by exploiting any of its remarkable properties. For example the fact that the material is very thin allows for a large surface-to-volume ratio, enhancing sensitivity to trace chemicals.
The conference also hosted representatives of scientific journals, who scouted the progress of the field and learned about the flagship effort. Editors of Physical Review Letters, three journals of the Nature family, and the journal 2D Materials, gave tips on how to publish scientific research in their magazines.
Photo: Chalmers / Henrik Sandsjö
As part of the dissemination effort of the flagship programme, an exhibition about graphene was opened on the second day of the conference in the Science Center Universeum, which attracts more than half a million visitors yearly. The exhibition aims to educate the general public about the prospects of graphene, and about the flagship effort.
Also coinciding with the conference came the announcement of new admissions to the flagship, which doubled the size of the consortium. 66 new partners were invited to participate in the project, following a 9-million euro competitive call. The competition was fierce – less than 10% of the submitted proposals were accepted.
On our behalf, Amaia Zurutuza gave an invited talk on recent advances in graphene applications, Alba Centeno contributed a talk about graphene-reinforced ceramics, while Amaia Pesquera presented a poster on the latest results in transmission electron microscopy of graphene.
The Graphene Flagship certainly did an amazing job organizing the conference and the exhibition, and we are proud to be an integral part of the flagship effort as the largest supplier of graphene on board. We extend our congratulations to the organization and look forward to the many events in the next 9 years.
