GRAPHENE BEGINS TO SHOW ITS METTLE
Emirati student among scientists exploring strong and flexible material’s potential applications. Daniel Bardsley writes
raphene, a material consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms in a hexagonal lattice, was first observed under the electron microscope more than half a century ago.
But it is little more than a decade since it was properly isolated and described scientifically – an achievement that in 2010 led to two researchers winning the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Properly characterising graphene was a major step forward because of the remarkable properties this material displays. It conducts heat and electricity well and is about 200 times stronger than steel.
That opens up a many possible applications that could transform fields of technology ranging from telecommunications to lighting.
Among those fascinated by graphene and its uses is Ibrahim Ahmad, 32, an Emirati. His interest in the subject took him from the UAE to the University of Manchester in Britain, the institution where that Nobel Prize-winning work was done. There the Dubai native completed a master’s degree.
He then transferred to Cambridge in the UK where, in a PhD programme sponsored by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, he is looking at how graphene could be used in the composites produced by the Adnoc joint venture Borouge, for which he works.
Often supplied in the form of pellets, materials produced by Borouge are used in the car industry and other sectors.
The focus of Mr Ahmad’s work is on producing substances that just happen to have an especially long name – multimodal hydrophobic polymer-graphene nanocomposites.
The name is not as intimidating as it sounds. The key point is that these substances contain polymers (large molecules made of many smaller molecules joined together) and graphene. And the word nano is used because the composite’s grain size is counted in nanometres.
Mr Ahmad wants to understand how polymers and graphene can be mixed together to produce substances useful for industry.
“My project is to find a solution for that, to try to mix them without changing the properties of both,” he says.
Graphene could be used in place of other carbon-based substances and, because of its impressive capabilities, it might be needed in much smaller quantities.
While some compounds might need to be 40 per cent carbon, with graphene the figure might be only 5 or 10 per cent.
It is about two years since Mr Ahmad moved to Cambridge, where he carries out laboratory work in departments scattered across a spacious modern district to the west of the old colleges for which the city is famous.
Abu Dhabi plays a vital role in his research, much of which is about characterising composite materials produced at an industrial-scale plant at the Borouge Innovation Centre in Sas Al Nakheel, Abu Dhabi.
Graphene is sent from Cambridge and used to produce the composites, which are returned to Cambridge for analysis.
“We try to use the polymer already engineered for composites. We don’t want to integrate any new system in the plant,” Mr Ahmad says.
The mechanical and thermal performance of the composites are among the parameters that are important to industry. For those composites used to produce pipes, ultraviolet radiation absorption is key, as UV can degrade outdoor pipes over time.
One reason Mr Ahmad has been particularly keen to work on graphene is that it is the starting point for many of the other interesting forms of carbon that have also captured the interest of scientists in recent years.
Among these other types are carbon nanotubes, which are single layers of carbon formed into tubes, and fullerenes, which are ballshaped structures also made up of single layers of carbon atoms hexagonally joined.
“If I work on graphene, I will know other carbon nanocomposites such as carbon nanotubes and fullerenes, because everything is based on graphene,” Mr Ahmad says.
“They’re all graphene, but in a different shape. It’s like an open gate for the others.”
Mr Ahmad’s path to Cambridge began with an undergraduate degree at UAE University in Al Ain, from which he graduated in 2008.
He then spent a year in laboratory work with Dubai Police before switching to Borouge, which is a joint venture between Adnoc and the Austrian plastics and chemicals company Borealis.
His work at Borouge was mainly technical and he also held a position that mixed his scientific expertise with marketing.
In 2014 he began work for a master’s degree at the University of Manchester and earned a distinction for his dissertation. The plan had been to return to Borouge but with the support of his employer, he is continuing to study.
It seems as though this decision is likely to pay off. Results so far have been promising and Mr Ahmad says a paper is close to being submitted for publication.
He says the scientific community will be surprised by the results, given the difficulties experienced by some other research groups with similar ambitions.
Some of these other research groups, Mr Ahmad says, may not have been careful enough about which polymer they used.
His work could represent a step towards using graphene on a truly industrial scale, something Mr Ahmad would like to see happen in the UAE.
“There’s no large-scale plant for graphene, but we’re preparing for that,” he says. “I’ve seen a lot of patents for that. They’re waiting for an investor to open a large-scale plant.
“If you look at any innovation centre, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford, Oxford, every university has a centre for graphene.
“Imagine how many people are working on it, but we don’t have a factory for graphene.
“In Cambridge there’s one on a small scale. It’s my dream, to be honest, to have it in our country.”
While some compounds might need to be
40 per cent carbon, with graphene the figure might be just
5 or 10 per cent