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The sky’s the limit, it seems, with graphene

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November 28, 2011|By Jay Fitzgerald

At Cabot Corp. in Billerica, senior researcher Matt Hesketh examined graphene,… (john tlumacki/globe staff )

It looks like nothing more than microscopic chicken wire, but a number of Massachusetts institutions are betting that graphene, a form of carbon built in layers one atom thick, will spark a new technology boom.

One of the strongest and most highly conductive materials ever measured, graphene is so lightweight and versatile that its potential uses seem limitless: as a replacement for silicon that will make superfast computer chips; as a fabric that will create “smart’’ clothing; even to make solar energy panels that can be rolled up or folded.

That’s why engineers and scientists across Massachusetts and the industrial world are promoting graphene as a miracle material. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other universities, as well as companies like Cabot Corp., the giant chemical company in Boston, are hoping Massachusetts can become a center for a burgeoning graphene industry.

“Research and development and early-stage industrialization of products is something Massachusetts does very well,’’ said David Carnahan, president of NanoLab Inc., a Waltham nanotechnology company that is beginning to dabble in the graphene field. “I don’t see why Massachusetts shouldn’t become a leader in the graphene area.’’

But the science is so new that many of graphene’s expected applications have yet to be invented. Even so, there has been something of a rush toward graphene, with thousands of related patent applications filed in recent years, according to information from the Patent Office.

“It has a lot of potential, but everyone is waiting for a real killer app to be developed from graphene,’’ said Peter Dichiara, a patent attorney at the WilmerHale law firm in Boston.

Interest in commercializing graphene jumped in 2010, when two researchers from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom won a Nobel Prize for their pioneering work in the material.

In September, MIT established a center to study graphene devices and systems. Scientists and engineers at Harvard University, Tufts University, Boston University, and other schools are also delving into graphene-related research.

In November, Cabot signed a nonexclusive licensing deal to use a Michigan company’s graphene technologies, including a method for manufacturing graphene from graphite, a form of carbon used in, for example, pencils. Cabot has also established a graphene research team, comprised of eight engineers and scientists, at its Billerica laboratory facility.