A professor in the School of Physics at Trinity College Dublin, has received a €2.2 million European grant to help him further his work on novel methods to use liquid exfoliation to develop printed electronics using 2D materials.

Prof Jonathan Coleman, principal investigator at the Science Foundation Ireland-funded Amber (Advanced Materials and Bioengineering Research) centre, has received the advanced grant from the European Research Council, which recognises scientists who are working on cutting-edge research.

This is the second time that Prof Coleman, whose works has been published in prestigious international journals such as Science, Nature, Nature Nanotechnology, and Advanced Materials, has received an ERC grant.

The aim of Prof Coleman’s research is to take liquid dispersions of nanosheets and by carefully tuning the liquid properties, optimise them for use as inks. These nano-structured inks can then be printed onto surfaces using standard printers to form patterned networks of nanosheets.

“This funding will help enable us to develop methods to transform large volume suspensions of exfoliated nanosheets into bespoke 2D inks with properties engineered for a range of specific printed device applications such as transistors and solar cells,” said Prof Coleman.

“This means that the consumer will have access to a much broader range of information than before. Information will be personalised. Not only will your smartphone be able to check the news, it will be able to check if the milk in your fridge is fresh,” he added.