India’s first Graphene Innovation Centre

January 28, 2022

The first Graphene innovation centre of the country is set up in Kerala. This is the first research and development centre being established for graphene.

About Graphene

Graphene is the strongest material in the world. Also, it is the thinnest material. Graphene has good electrical conductivity and chemical stability. It is transparent, light in weight and has a large surface area.
Graphene has the ability to replace indium. It brings down the cost of Organic Light Emitting Diode. Graphene is an isotope of carbon. It has a two – dimensional honeycomb nanostructure.
Graphene is addressed to as “Wonder material” for its electronic and electrical properties.
Graphene is a zero gap semiconductor. This means the conduction band and the valence band are at the same energy level. For an element to conduct electricity, it should have free electrons in conduction band.

About the Centre

The central government has allocated Rs 86.41 crores of funds for the project. The centre is to be built along with the support of Kerala Government. Tata steel is the industrial partner. Also, the state government run Digital University Kerala and the Centre for Materials for Electronics will join hands along with the state and central governments in implementing the project.

Applications of Graphene

It is used to make tennis racquets. Also, graphene is used in making composite materials, biological engineering, energy storage and filtration. It is also used in lubricants, paints, functional fluids, batteries, coatings, oils, capacitors, display materials, solar cells.
Graphene is also used to add strength to other materials. Adding a very little amount of graphene to metals, plastics or any other materials makes it highly stronger.
As Graphene has high surface area to volume ratio, it is ideal to be used in making super capacitors.
Graphene has anti – corrosion coatings. It is used in drug delivery, sensors, paints and solar panels.

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