NEILL RICKETTS

» Starting off as an engineer , I always had a bit of a flair for making a little bit of money , as well . So putting the two things together , that ' s how I ended up running this area . I spotted a bit of a niche where there were lots of really , really great ideas in UK universities , but they weren ' t making it to light . And so we started with the first technology from the University of Liverpool , quickly moving into the fascinating world of graphene when we acquired a spin-out from the University of Manchester in 2014 .

» Well , it would ' ve been 2004 , 2005 that the guys actually isolated graphene , which had been talked about since 1927 . I think it was Cambridge University — they get a bit upset that they did a lot of the initial theorising . But the guys in Manchester , they actually got it isolated and stabilised so that we could start to measure it and look at it . It wasn ' t really until about 2011 , 2012 that it started to become mainstream . So you ' re right . About 10 years ago , people started talking about it . Then , of course , you ' ve got the challenges of actually making the stuff .

» Graphene has the ability to change almost everything that we do . Everything we use , everything we take for granted . And , in a lot of instances , you know , that ' s for the positive effect on the environment . So if we can reduce the amount of concrete that we are pouring — because graphene can give it 50 % more strength — if we could take away the steel that has a really quite nasty making process , then we can really start to see these changes and make a difference to the environment . That ' s what we should really concentrate on at the moment .