Kerala gets country's first Graphene Innovation Centre

Thiruvananthapuram: The state-run Digital University Kerala (DUK), along with CMET-Trichur, is gearing up to set up India Innovation Centre for Graphene, the country's first Graphene R&D incubation centre in Kerala.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India, has given approval for the Rs 86.41 crore-project. The Centre, which will be implemented with the support of Government of Kerala, has the potential to accelerate the State's growth in the knowledge industry sector and the Tata Steel Ltd will be the industrial partner of the centre, an official statement said here.

Often referred to as the wonder material for its extraordinary electrical and electronic properties, Graphene, as per latest researches, could replace indium and thereby bring down cost of OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screens in smartphones. Graphene is the thinnest and strongest material in the world ever known and has good chemical stability, high electrical conductivity and a large surface area while being transparent and lightweight.

The chief investigators of the project, Dr A.P. James (DUK) and Dr A. Seema (CMET-T) are leading the initiative, with an aim to bridge the gap between Graphene academic research and industrial applications, it said.

The centre aims to be an anchor point to promote startups and commercial research. The main collaborators to the centre include scientists from the National Graphene Institute, University of Manchester, and a growing list of expressions of interest from industry partners from around the world.

"We expect the centre to offer students, researchers, established industries and budding startups to test and experiment new innovative products, and make it a thriving environment for innovative Graphene-based product development," said Saji Gopinath, Vice Chancellor, Digital University Kerala.

The emerging 2D materials will have a wide range of commercial and industrial applications in biomedical, defense, electronics, energy, and sensors, in the next decade.

The centre will also develop the skilled manpower by anchoring Ph.D. and master students through Digital University, with an applied research focus in the areas of electronics product design, sensors, and energy applications, the statement added.