A University of Manchester scientist has won a prestigious award for his business proposal to develop a range of graphene-based inks for printed electronics.
Daryl McManus, a PhD student at the University, is the recipient of this year’s Eli and Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award.
The £50k prize is designed to support the early stage implementation of a commercially-viable business proposal from students, post-docs and recent graduates of The University of Manchester based on the many and varied applications of graphene.
The prize money will be used to help found a new graphene start-up company based on producing graphene inks which have been a key area of interest for researchers. A compressed graphene ink RFID tag was recently unveiled by the University.
Daryl’s proposal to harness the superlative properties of graphene in developing graphene inks for printed applications impressed a panel of judges against twelve other entries.
New applications in printed electronics demand more concentrated inks that can be deposited in more consistent and environmentally friendly ways. Daryl’s proposed water-based inks provide an answer.
Daryl, 24, who is currently undertaking his PhD within the Graphene NOWNANO Doctoral Training Centre said: “Our environmentally friendly 2D material inks provide a cheap, scalable solution to the production of next generation flexible and transparent electronics.
