Graphene Research Centre

The Graphene Research Centre (GRC), at the National University of Singapore (NUS), is the first centre in Asia dedicated to graphene research.^[1] The Centre was established under the scientific advice of two Nobel Laureates in physics – Prof Andre Geim and Prof Konstantin Novoselov - who won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of graphene.^[2] It was created for the conception, characterization, theoretical modeling, and development of transformative technologies based on two-dimensional crystals, such as graphene.^[3]

History and funding

NUS established the GRC in 2010, under the leadership of Prof. Antonio H. Castro Neto, with a start-up fund from NUS of S$40 Million, 1,000 m2 of laboratory space,^[4] and a state-of-the-art clean room facility of 800 m2.^[5] Speaking of commercial application today scientists are using graphene for making synthetic blood and developing non-invasive treatments for cancer. Graphene would soon replace silicon in your computer chips thus resulting in a much faster, unbreakable tablets, phone and others;^[6] GRC is also participating on a S$50 Million CREATE grant from NRF, together with University of California, Berkeley and Nanyang Technological University, for the study of new photovoltaic systems based on two-dimensional crystals. In June 2012, the GRC announced the opening of a S$15 Million micro and nano fabrication facility to produce graphene products.^[7]

Research

The target areas of intervention of the NUS Graphene Research Centre are ^[8]

• Atomically thin, wafer size, crystal growth, and characterization: Raman, AFM, TEM, STM, magneto transport, angle resolved photoemission (ARPES), optics.
• Flexible electronics and strain engineering of atomically thin materials.
• Mechanics of atomically thin film transfer.
• Nano-scale patterning and new device development.
• Three-dimensional architectures based on atomically thin films (atomic multi-layers, see figure).
• Composite materials where accumulated stress could be monitored by contactless, non-invasive, optical methods.
• Spintronics and valleytronics in two-dimensional materials.
• Atomically thin electrodes for photovoltaic or OLED applications.
• Atomically thin gas barriers and electrodes for energy/charge transfer and storage (water splitting, fuel cells, etc.).
• Solution-processed atomically thin substrates for bio applications and catalysis.
• Atomically thin films as optical components in fiber lasers (mode locking, polarizers etc.).
• Atomically thin film platforms for bio-sensing and stem cell growth.
• Atomically thin film platforms for sol-gel, organic, and electro-chemistry.
• Graphene-ferroelectric memories (G-FeRAM), graphene spin torque transistors (G-STT).
• Computational modeling of new atomically thin materials and complex architectures.

References

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