Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Electrochemistry is concerned with the transfer of charge between a solid (the electrode) and a molecule, which is usually in solution. The properties of the electrode itself may be important, particularly in the case of carbon surfaces, which is especially relevant in view of their widespread applications as electrode materials. Graphitic forms of carbon are plentiful, non-toxic and highly conductive, and have thus found uses as disposable electrode materials in electrochemical glucose sensing, or as continually-used substrates in energy storage and generation (e.g. lithium ion batteries, super-capacitors and fuel cells). In each of these roles, the interfacial properties, and particularly the charge transfer kinetics, of the carbon are essential. Such commercial electrochemical applications of carbon have traditionally used screen-printed or activated carbons, formed from micron-scale amorphous or graphitic particles, often mixed with a polymeric binder. There has been enormous interest in the last decade or so in the use of nano-scale carbon materials, both from the viewpoint of fundamental understanding of their properties and their technological exploitation. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) consist of rolled up 1-dimensional sheets of carbon atoms. Recently 2-dimensional carbon in the form of single graphite sheets, known as graphene, has been isolated. These analogues of graphite have attracted much interest because of their unique electronic properties, not least the exceptionally high carrier mobility, and atomically well-defined structure. These properties have stimulated enormous interest in theoretical and experimental studies of charge TRANSPORT within CNTs and graphene. An equally interesting area, given the myriad of electrochemical applications of carbon (see above) is to understand the case of interfacial charge TRANSFER from the low dimensional carbon to a redox-active molecule. In particular, the structure of mono- and bi-layer graphene provides an ideal model system with which fundamental questions about charge transfer to/from carbons can be answered. The approach we will pursue exploits the lead position held by the UK generally, and Manchester in particular, established by the experimental isolation of high purity graphene by Novoselov et al in 2004 . We will use graphene samples defined by lithographically etched windows to study the interfacial charge transfer characteristics of the material as a function of structure. Experimental work will be supported with state-of-the-art computation.

Graphene is a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice. The exceptional physical properties of graphene have attracted enormous interest since its experimental isolation and initial characterisation in 2004, notably its intrinsically high surface area and its unique electronic properties, as manifested by through its high conductivity. Amongst the myriad applications foreseen for this material, exploitation in electrochemical energy storage with supercapacitors or batteries ranks as one of the most prominent. De-carbonising the national, and indeed global, energy supply is a goal driven by rising fossil fuel prices and concerns over air pollution and anthropogenic climate change. For such de-carbonisation to make greater use of "renewable" energy sources requires new methods of storing and converting that energy. This general background, along with the widespread increase in usage of personal electronic apparatus (mobile phones, lap-tops) has driven an enormous renewal of interest and development of electrochemical (battery and supercapacitor based) energy storage, which is the technological motivation for this project. Ironically, such (potentially) de-carbonised energy stores are highly dependent on carbon as a constituent storage material. Supercapacitors are based on the storage of electrical energy within the electrical double-layer formed at high surface area electrodes, whereas certain types of battery are dependent on carbon, either as one of the electrodes or as a conducting additive used to complete the circuit to the electrodes. There are considerable challenges to be addressed en route to incorporating graphene into these energy storage devices however: two specific problems, apparent in much of the vast body of recent work on graphene and energy storage, are: (a) the "graphene" is generally of poor quality and variable dimensions, and (b) frequently only minimal effort is made to control the architecture of the graphene in the resultant device. Consequently, we are still some way off the routine incorporation of graphene within battery and supercapacitor electrodes, as either composites for immobilisation or conductivity, or as primary electrode materials. The goal of this proposal is to remedy these deficiencies by iteratively designing, manufacturing and testing graphene-based batteries and supercapacitors.

Enormous numbers of energetic neutrons are released when helium is produced by the fusion of deuterium and tritium at high temperatures, as in our Sun. This promises to solve the World's long-term energy needs if a controlled version can be carried out on Earth. JET at Culham has been one of the leading experimental reactors for magnetically confined fusion using gaseous plasmas, and has been an important step towards designing the international thermonuclear experimental reactor, ITER. UK fusion technology is now on the fast track and will demand a new generation of materials for commercial reactor construction. The selection of materials for ITER has been based on those available some years ago, but there are trade-offs in deciding whether to use high temperature metals that are resistant to plasma erosion but liable to be damaged by radiation and also contaminate the pure plasma, or to use light elements that are toxic (beryllium) or more easily eroded and may absorb significant amounts of tritium fuel (graphite). We want to establish a materials capability for the next generation, and in particular to exploit our capability in diamond films as a route to designer carbons as plasma-facing wall materials. This proposal intends to coat carbon tiles with diamond on a large scale, in order to lower the erosion rates, dust formation, and tritium absorption, by using the unique properties of diamond, namely high temperature stability, radiation resistance, high atomic density and unsurpassed chemical stability in the presence of hydrogen plasmas. This solution enables the preferred use of low atomic number plasma-facing materials. Computational modelling of carbon structures will complement the experimental programme in optimising the chemical and physical structure of a composite functional material exposed to radiation. If successful, this approach would enable reactors to operate for longer periods before component replacements and without compromising the tritium inventory.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.