Research

Our vision:

Graphene finds potential use in a vast number of economic activities – catalysis, biomedicine, sensing and fundamental science. We aim to be at the forefront of this development, enabling graphene application by developing methods for the handling, modification, characterization and application of our favorite 2D material.

Fabrication – Our laboratory grows high quality, large area graphene by chemical vapor deposition. We invent methods of graphene transfer that are cleaner and more versatile than conventional transfer methods. With our expertise we make the transfer from copper to any desired substrate tailored to its final application.

Modification – Using different kinds of chemistry we fine-tune the structure and properties of graphene. Reactive plasma, bottom-up synthesis and electrochemistry allow modification of the chemical properties of the graphene edge and basal plane.
In addition, we use bottom-up synthesis to create various 2D carbon films with fine control over structure and chemical composition. We do this simply by fusing together polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. By altering the structure of the building blocks, we can alter the characteristics of the final membrane.

Applications – We are active in various fields of research that benefit from graphene’s unique properties. For the purpose of water desalination, we create porous nanostructures of graphene and other 2D membranes. Single nanopores in graphene find use in single-molecule detection based on nanopore translocation. We develop sensors that can monitor heart rate, specific proteins in solution and even spin cross-over transition in organo-metallic crystals, exploiting the conductivity and the field effect response of graphene. Chemically functionalized graphene is explored for its catalytic properties in hydrogen generation. In our collaborations as well as scientific publications, we aim to make graphene accessible for a wide range of research fields.

Please browse our research topics for more insight into on-going projects: