Graphene was chosen by the European Union for the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET), as part of an investment program of of 1 billion euros that will be managed over the next 10 years. The Graphene Flagship Consortium includes industry and academic partners, with Nokia in the lead as one of the major activists.
Graphene is best described as the world’s strongest material. It bares all the properties to make it unique. The harnessing process took shape in 2004 and the material started making its way into the industry. It’s light, very thin, transparent, stronger than diamond and 300 times stronger than steel, bendable and it can be mixed to create other materials to cover then industry’s needs. The Graphene Flagship Consortium includes 74 partners from around the world, including Nokia aiming for major breakthroughs in the mobile industry.
The Finland based manufacturer has a Nokia Research Centre based in Cambridge, UK, working with nanotechnologies since 2006 and with teams in Finland and Russia. Nokia believes graphene represents a major change in the way we perceive the technical industry and we should expect changes in the near future. While not all materials will be made out of graphene, some of its components will improve upon what the industry already offers. Henry Tirri, EVP, CTO of Nokia explained:
“Making products out of graphene will definitely happen across lots of different industries. By introducing people from different markets together within the EU-based consortium, we can begin to make real-world applications that benefit us all.
“Really, this type of technology has radically improved the properties of many materials that can be used in our industry. It was discovered in the EU, and we’re very proud to have been involved from the very early years and now to be participating in the consortium. We have a very functional research team in place that can do world-class research with our partners.
“We have kept our eyes open, and believe that this will bring immediate impact to our products over the coming years in some way or another.”
