• Question: What do you think about using graphene more?

    Asked by 938munm25 to Sian, Max, Lizzie, Francis, Ben on 6 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Francis Man

      Francis Man answered on 6 Mar 2018:

      It’s a bit far away from my area of expertise. From what I’ve heard it seems very promising to make better batteries.
      It could be used for tissue engineering, for example to make scaffold on which cells could grow inside the body (to repair damaged organs for example). But in this case, one of the problems is that it’s made of very strong carbon-carbon bonds, which the body doesn’t degrade very well. This isn’t ideal, usually you would want an implant to last just long enough to do the job, and then be naturally degraded by enzymes. There is ongoing research to design biodegradable materials made of graphene, I’m very curious to see how it will turn out.

    • Photo: Ben Mulhearn

      Ben Mulhearn answered on 8 Mar 2018:

      Coming from Manchester, the home of graphene, I definitely think we’ll be using it more in the future. Especially in medicine, where it could be used to make nano-robots to help fight infections (although that’s a LONG way off). Look at our shiny new building! http://www.graphene.manchester.ac.uk/collaborate/national-graphene-institute/

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