The five-floor National Graphene Institute is set to
open in 2015, creating 100 jobs and safer condoms will be one of the first
products developed at the new National Graphene Institute in Manchester.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded
scientists $100,000 (£60,000) to create stronger, thinner condoms from the new
"wonder material".
The substance will be mixed with latex to produce a
material which will encourage use by "enhancing sensation".
Graphene, the thinnest, strongest material known,
was first isolated at the University of Manchester in 2004.
It has more often been linked to potentially
revolutionizing products such as smartphones and broadband.
Its discovery won Manchester-based scientists Sir
Andre Geim and Sir Kostya Novoselov the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010.
The charity has offered the Grand Challenges
Explorations grant to the Manchester research team to develop new composite
materials for condoms, which it wants to make more desirable in order to
increase global usage.
Dr Papa Salif Sow, senior program officer on the HIV
team at the foundation, said a "redesigned condom that overcomes
inconvenience, fumbling or perceived loss of pleasure would be a powerful
weapon in the fight against poverty".
Dr Aravind Vijayaraghavan, who will lead the
researchers, said that since it was isolated, "people have wondered when
graphene will be used in our daily life".
"Currently, people imagine using graphene in
mobile phone screens, food packaging and chemical sensors.
"If this project is successful, we might have
[an everyday] use which will literally touch our everyday life in the most
intimate way."
The National Graphene Institute at the University of
Manchester is being established with a £23m grant from the European Regional
Development Fund.
No comments:
Post a Comment