Sustainable and industrially scalable ultrasonic liquid phase exfoliation technologies for manufacturing 2D advanced functional materials

Project Description

This project will clarify and establish the fundamental mechanisms of ultrasonic cavitation and streaming in the exfoliation of graphene and other 2D materials at the nanoscale. The outcomes will be the guidelines, protocols, and optimised parameters for the up-scaled manufacturing of 2D materials that are the promising and game-changing materials of the 21st century. The work will focus on making the developed technological approaches more cost-efficient, sustainable, and eco-friendly by significantly reducing production times and replacing harmful and expensive solvents and chemicals by water. The outcomes of the project will generate substantial academic impact on a wide range of areas such as sono-chemistry, self-assembly, and functional nanotechnology. This is cutting edge science which is closely aligned with one of the Physics Grand Challenges, ‘Nanoscale Design of Functional Materials’ and it falls within two EPSRC priority areas namely the ‘21st Century Products’ and ‘Sustainable industries’. The applicants have co-authored a number of high impact papers relevant to the area of the proposal and their scientific track record attests to the impact of their work on a wider academic field and community.

Science communication and dissemination is crucial for maximising the impact of publicly funded research. We shall publish our results in high-impact, peer reviewed, open access scientific journals such as Nature Materials, Carbon, Ultrasonic Sonochemistry, Applied Physics Letters, Chemical Communications, etc. We shall also disseminate our results at the most important and relevant international conferences such as Graphene; Int. Conf. Emerging Materials and Nanotechnology; Annual Congr. Materials Research and Technology; Int. Conf. Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology; Meeting of European Society of Sonochemistry, etc. This is particularly important for the younger, early-career members of the team; and the provisions have been made in the budget for their active participation in such dissemination.

In addition to these traditional means of dissemination and impact, all participating researchers and academics will be engaged in outreach activities (industry and trade fairs, science festivals and exhibition organised by the universities, research councils and the Royal Society, podcasts, schools, departmental summer schools, workshops, seminars, invited lectures) and annual open days. These efforts will continue to inform beneficiaries on the project’s progress and to attract interest from prospective collaborators, research students and industry. Papers and data highlights will also be periodically uploaded onto research group and departmental web sites accessible to a wide audience of the academic and manufacturing communities.

During the project, we will organise yearly workshops to inform industry, academia, and learned societies on the scientific/technological advances. This will allow correct steering of the project towards the industrial and scientific needs as well as consideration and discussion of any ethical, social, or environmental concerns arising during the research. The global network of the project principal investigators will help in disseminating the research and societal outputs, e.g. through NG involvement in Science Policy, DEFRA, RS & RAEng Nanotechnology working group and the British Carbon Group. These activities will be actively supported by and channelled through the outreach departments of the participating universities. Data management plan will be compiled and the data generated through this research will be shared on BRAD and Figshare (UBru), RADAR (OBU), Symplectic, ORA (UO) and BOX ( UHull).