Graphene Research Centre

Graphene Research Centre (GRC)

GRC Logo
Type	Research institute
Established	2010
Director	Antonio Castro Neto
Location	Singapore, Singapore
Affiliation	National University of Singapore
Website	graphene.nus.edu.sg

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