In October 2013 the European Union launched two flagship projects: the Human Brain Project (“HBP”); and, the Graphene Flagship (“GF”).
HBP aims to provide researchers worldwide with information & communications technology tools and mathematical models for sharing and analysing large brain data.
GF aims to make Europe the “Graphene Valley” of the world. In total Europe will invest €1 billion into GF as a ten-year push to get graphene innovation out of the laboratory and into commercial applications.
However, more than halfway through its 10-year funding cycle, the commercialisation of graphene was proving a challenge. So, in 2019, to help graphene break into commercial markets, a project – Graphene & 2D Materials EUREKA Cluster – sought EU funding to coordinate nanotechnology innovation.
GF also funds so-called ‘Spearhead Projects’. There were six introductory Spearhead Projects coming to the end of their research and development stage. One was Graphene photonics for the 5G era which was deemed to be “in a good stead to develop this technology successfully.” New Spearhead Projects were launched, eleven of them, which began their work in April 2020. One of the eleven is: GRAPHIL: Purifying water with graphene filtration.
Graphene is a nanomaterial made up of a single layer of carbon atoms. It’s light, transparent, flexible, incredibly strong, an excellent conductor of heat and electricity and has interesting light absorption abilities. Another of it’s characteristics is it’s highly integrative with neuron cells in the brain giving some indication how Europe’s HBP and GF could converge.
By tracking the top 10 graphene applications through the years one can see how ‘medicine’ rises to become the most popular application of graphene in 2020, ranked by the number of posts written. Beginning with 2015 where medicine was 4th; 2016, 3rd; 2018, 3rd; 2019, 2nd; and finally, 2020,1st on the list.
Covid-19 is cited as the obvious reason graphene’s use in medicine was the most popular discussion on the Graphene-info website.
Is graphene safe? The short answer is, no. Some face masks contain graphene and, in April, Canadian health authorities issued a recall of masks containing graphene or biomass graphene. Since then Belgium has found masks contaminated with graphene and hospitals in France have suspended the use of face masks containing graphene....<<<Read The Original Article Here>>>....
