Graphene and nanofi llers | materials research
Small world: assessing the next steps for nanocomposites
The UK’s National Composites Centre (NCC) hosted a workshop by the Nanotechnology Knowledge Transfer Network (NanoKTN) entitled ‘Graphene & Nanofi llers for Composites’ on 5 December 2013. It was a coinci- dence that this was the day after the Guardian newspa- per ran an article contending that graphene, like so many great inventions of the past, was created in the UK but lost to other countries for lack of government will to foster technological innovation. It was another coincidence that the CEO of Airbus was visiting the NCC the same day as the workshop took place. The location of the NCC itself, in a University of
Bristol technology park on the outskirts of Bristol and near to Airbus UK’s Filton site, was probably less of a coincidence, however. Aerospace applications have been one of the main forces driving interest in compos- ites, and the NCC’s steering board includes members from Airbus, GEA Aviation, Rolls Royce, Westland and Dassault Systems, among representatives from a variety of other industries. Nanotechnology, the science of materials with at
least one dimension under 100 nm, is nothing new, noted Dr Martin Kemp, theme manager of the Nano- KTN. Many living things and some inorganic materials have ‘nano’ feature or operate at nano scale. Ancient craftsmen used nanotechnology without knowing it; for
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Researchers used a recent workshop at the UK’s National Composites Centre to discuss new developments
in polymer nanocomposites based on graphene and nanofi llers
instance, the 4th Century Lycurgus Cup displayed in the
British Museum contains nanoclusters that change the colour of the dichroic glass when lit from behind. “Nanoscience has developed rapidly since the
1970s, leading fi rst to scientifi c curiosities like ‘Bucky- balls’, then nanotubes, and now we are into the nanoengineering phase, creating new materials on demand and with precision,” Kemp said. He and others furthered divided today’s nanomaterials by the number of dimensions they have: 0D, like fullerenes 1D, like carbon nanotubes (CNTs) 2D, like graphene 3D, such as graphite and various engineered structures, textures and polymer coatings
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application for graphene
February 2014 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 27
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