In east China's Nanjing city, the International Graphene Innovation Conference has wrapped up. The commercial and academic event gathered 2-thousand people with interests in graphene, a carbon nano-material that holds promise for a huge array of applications. A man who's known as the Father of Graphene, Andre Geim, took part in the event, and recognized China's leading position in this arena.

 

Andre Geim is a physicist and professor working at the University of Manchester in Britain. In 2004, he and Kostya Novoselov isolated graphene from graphite mineral. The achievement earned them the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010. So when Geim hails China's achievements in the graphene industry, his words carry weight.

 

PROF. ANDRE GEIM NOBEL PRIZE WINNER I have been to many countries in the world. I think in terms of graphene development for commercialization, China certainly leads the world. There are also companies in the US, Europe, but China is certainly the champion in the area.

 

Graphene is a nanomaterial with thicknesses measured at the scale of individual atoms. It is many times stronger than steel, and few known materials can match its abilities to conduct electricity and manage heat. It's little wonder that graphene is known as black gold. Graphene's properties give it a wide variety of uses. for example, in air filter masks. At the conference, professors from Southeast University showcased their latest scientific achievement - a special kind of PM2.5 filter mask.

 

PROF. SUN LITAO DEPUTY DEAN, SOUTHEAST UNIV. Now all PM2.5 filter masks on the market are based on electrostatic absorption technology. However, if exposed to water vapour, those masks can only be effective for one hour. Our graphene-based mask can protect users from pollution with no loss of filtration effectiveness for one week.

 

Graphene is also called the industrial monosodium glutamate, because of its versatility. It could bring advances in areas such as in industrial paints and coatings, greatly outpacing traditional materials.

 

LI YICHUN, SECRETARY GENERAL CHINA'S GRAPHITE INDUSTRY TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION STRATEGIC ALLIANCE Current applications that add graphene promote product improvements, and thus can push forward the transformation of the manufacturing industry.