India’s First Graphene Innovation Centre in Kerala | 03 Feb 2022

Recently, the Kerala government announced that the country’s first Graphene Innovation Centre would come up in Thrissur, Kerala.

It is a joint venture of Digital University of Kerala, Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET) and Tata Steel Limited.
Earlier in 2020, the researchers from the City University of Hong Kong had produced a laser-induced form of graphene masks that inactivate the coronavirus species.

An Innovation Center is a cross-functional plan that creates a safe haven for new ideas.
With opportunities for individual and group collaboration across time zones and continents, it's a place that fosters a culture of innovation through the creation, sharing, and testing of ideas.
The India Innovation Centre for Graphene would come up in Thrissur at a cost of Rs 86.41 crore.
- Of the 86.41-crore, the Union Government would provide Rs 49.18 crore and private business houses Rs 11.48 crore.
The state government would provide the basic infrastructure for the project. The Centre would help attract investors to develop graphene products.

The project would give a major fillip for scientific research as well as the state’s industrial sector.
Kerala’s human resources capital could be effectively exploited by the proposed Centre, which would help Kerala to emerge as a knowledge-based economy.

Graphene is a one-atom-thick layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. It is the building-block of Graphite, but graphene is a remarkable substance on its own with a multitude of astonishing properties.
It is the thinnest, most electrically and thermally conductive material in the world, while also being flexible, transparent and incredibly strong.
Often referred to as a wonder material for its extraordinary electrical and electronics properties, graphene could replace Indium and thereby bring down the cost of OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screens in smartphones, studies have shown.
Graphene has a lot of promise for additional applications: anti-corrosion coatings and paints, efficient and precise sensors, faster and efficient electronics, flexible displays, efficient solar panels, faster DNA sequencing, drug delivery, and more.