Graphene is a wonder material with many superlatives to its name. It is the thinnest known material in the universe and the strongest ever measured. Graphene can sustain current densities six orders of magnitude higher than that of copper, shows record thermal conductivity and stiffness, and is impermeable to gases. All of its exceptional properties have opened up new avenues for the use of graphene in several applications.
In my talk, I will present recent trends in graphene research and applications, especially the use of graphene in separation and filtration technologies.
About Professor Rahul R. Nair
Rahul R. Nair is a Professor of Materials Physics at the National Graphene Institute (NGI) and Department of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science at the University of Manchester and holds a prestigious Royal Society Fellowship and ERC starting grant. He has published over 50 highly cited peer‐refereed research articles, including five Science, three Nature, and more than a dozen Nature series publications during the last eleven years. His awards include a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust, IUPAP Young Scientist Award (2014) from the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, the Moseley Medal and Prize (2015) from the Institute of Physics, Lee Hsun Lecture Award on Materials Science (2018) from the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Creativity prize (2018) from the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW), and the Philip Leverhulme Prize (2018) from the Leverhulme Trust. He has also been selected as a Highly Cited Researcher from 2016 by Thomson Reuters.
The main scope of his research is the novel synthesis and construction of application-oriented devices based on two-dimensional (2D) crystals to explore new physical phenomena. His group is actively engaged in the design and development of 2D materials based membranes and nanofluidic devices for probing fundamental molecular transport at the nanoscale and their potential applications in our daily life. His research mainly involves preparation and characterisation of membranes, engineering the pore dimensions and pore structure by chemical functionalization and developing surface modification strategies for fabricating functional membranes for diverse applications such as water purification, separation, and related technologies. Other major activities include developing high throughput techniques to realise large-area membranes for applications such as gas separation, pervaporation, desalination, barrier coating, organic solvent nano-filtration, membranes for healthcare technology, and (bio) pharmaceutical purification.
