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High-Quality Graphene Supports for Microspectroscopic Techniques.

Project description

Innovation for high-quality graphene grids for TEM techniques

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been a preferred tool to characterise local structures across a wide range of materials. Several aspects of this technology, such as aberration correctors and electron detectors, have recently been improved drastically. Unfortunately, the role of TEM sample supports has been underexplored so far. While graphene grids hold promise, they face critical challenges that hamper them from becoming a standard approach in TEM investigation. The ERC-funded HYPERGRAPH project aims to address these issues by developing a solution for producing high-quality graphene grids with consistent quality and high yields. The project also seeks to validate this solution and increase the adoption rate of this technology in the field.

Objective

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a powerful technique to fully characterise the local structure of a broad range of materials. Due to many recent hardware advances, the quality of TEM measurements is nowadays ultimately determined by the sample supports. Surprisingly though, their importance has been majorly overlooked so far. The many benefits of graphene layers as a support have been well-recognised by the community, but commercial graphene grids show poor coverage and are dominated by unwanted residues and Cu nanoparticles from the preparation process. Consequently, commercial graphene grids currently correspond to merely 1% of the grids used.

A solution to this problem is a novel protocol to produce high-quality graphene grids, developed within my ongoing ERC Consolidator grant REALNANO. A head-to-head comparison with the state-of-the-art demonstrates the superior quality of the HYPERGRAPH grids. Moreover, our ongoing market survey with leading groups in both materials and life science indicates a very strong need for graphene grids that yield high and constant quality. Therefore, the overall aim of this PoC is to deliver our HYPERGRAPH supports to the TEM community, our beachhead market. To reach this goal, our methodology is based on further product development (reproducibility, cost-efficiency and shelf-life), exploration of other possible applications and business planning. In this manner, we aim to increase the Technology Readiness Level for HYPERGRAPH from 4 to 7 and the and Commercial Readiness Level from 4 to 6.

Feeling the pain related to the poor quality of TEM supports as an end user every day, I am convinced that valorisation of our technology can fill a crucial void in the TEM value chain. In this manner, HYPERGRAPH will enable characterisation and further development of new generations of nano- and biomaterials, with applications in fields as broad as catalysis, medicine, protein research, viral infections and energy.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2022-POC1

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Host institution

UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 150 000,00
Address
PRINSSTRAAT 13
2000 Antwerpen
Belgium

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Region
Vlaams Gewest Prov. Antwerpen Arr. Antwerpen
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

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Beneficiaries (1)

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