Government’s build back better campaign has seen £4bn of taxpayer cash promised to create 250,000 “green jobs” in the drive to cut carbon emissions by 2050. With the so-called “green industrial revolution” now underway, iMoney is taking a look at what qualifies as a green job in a new series. If you would like to feature, please email [email protected]
Sandy Chen, co-founder of Graphene Composites, is developing applications for graphene, a form of carbon said to have huge potential for being a highly sustainablematerial. As well as enhancing the performance of wind turbine blades, the company has devised a formula he believes can help fight the pandemic.
What is graphene?
It’s harder than diamond yet more elastic than rubber, 200 times tougher than steel and 1,000 times lighter than paper. Graphene is the thinnest material ever created at just one atom thick – so slim it’s considered two-dimensional. This honeycomb of carbon atoms is also more electrically conductive than copper.
A leading role in the fight against Covid-19
Now British firm Graphene Composites claims it has developed a unique, virucidal and germicidal ink that can be used in a broad range of applications including PPE, filtration solutions and high-tech surfaces that capture and destroy viruses and bacteria.
Indeed, researchers at Brown University in the US found that within one minute of exposure the GC ink was able to completely stop the human influenza virus and OC43, a coronavirus that causes the common cold, from replicating and spreading. It is currently being tested on SARS Covid-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.
