back to article Graphene-wrangler Paragraf slurps a cool £2.9m

Paragraf, a Cambridge-based outfit claiming to have achieved the first commercial-scale graphene production technique, scored what would seem a relatively paltry £2.9m in seed funding today. Graphene, the wonder-material that is notable for both generating exciting lab results and burning prodigious amounts of cash, has proven …

  1. ArrZarr Silver badge
    Pint

    Is carbon the most versatile element ever? In one form, the hardest mineral known to man (almost). In another, the superior way of taking notes. In another, the basis of all life as we know it. In another, the basis of the world's energy generation. In another, a wonder material that trounced existing materials for motorsports and in another, a material panacea, in yet another, a reliable way of detecting the age of biological samples.

    I think we deserve to raise a pint to this hardworking little element.

    1. DNTP

      Your pint is mostly hydrogen and oxygen by mass, though I'll admit that without bits of organic carbon, and inorganic fizzy carbon, it would be just flat, salty water.

  2. Chris G

    Sorry you won't understand

    El Reg sent a bunch of questions to Paragraf but has yet to receive a response. ®

    Sorry El Reg this is rocket science: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22630235-400-spacecraft-built-from-graphene-could-run-on-nothing-but-sunlight/

    Graphene seems to be approaching '42' status being touted as the answer to almost everything.

    Let's hope it really is, in theory at least it could give a bit more longevity to Moore's Law as well as pointing to anti gravity, spacecraft propulsion, a quantum leap in Solar PV efficiency etc

  3. K

    "spacecraft-built-from-graphene-could-run-on-nothing-but-sunlight"

    The ship has fondly been given the moniker "DS2", which translates to Deep Space Deep Shit!

  4. CanjustfollowTessla

    You tube seems to indicate Grapheme is from America but I believe it was a Polish student in Cambridge who was the lead on this

    A Woman leading the World not the first time Nobel prize is in the offering for innovation also a Polka.

    1. JassMan

      @ CanjustfollowTessla

      Wikipedia says not. I remembered form yonks ago when it was first announced that it Manchester Uni not Cambridge. Looking at the repository of all human knowledge confirms that it was 2 Russian born Brits at Manchester Uni called Geim and Novoselov who got the Nobel Prize and hold the patent.

  5. hammarbtyp

    While welcome, to be honest 2.9 million is what Elton John spends on a year at florists, so on the scale of things it appears to be pocket change for something so critical

    (We need a el Reg unit scale for money, 0.00001 Brexits, 1 Trump Golf Trip)

  6. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Go

    something rather similar happend with Carbon fibre.

    Huge potential but ballsachingly difficult to make in quantity.

    Lots of failed projects before IIRC the Royal Aircraft Establishment got something close to being able to be scaled up.

    So starting small may be a very wise move and (hopefully) a very good investment.

    I wish them well with their tech, whatever it actually is.

  7. Hairy Spod

    never mind transistors and all that technical malarky

    How about just giving us cheap flexible lightwieght wiring.

    Replacing all that copper would make cars and planes lighter and even make trains run on time (by virtue of the signalling cable not getting nicked every 5 minutes

    World saved

  8. Christian Berger

    Considering the potential...

    ... and the amount of money even totally useless Web 2.0 companies are getting. 2.9 Millions seems extremely modest.

  9. peterw52

    golf balls

    I can now buy golf balls (Callaway) with a graphine outer cover, said to add 20 yards to a drive! So somebody somewhere is making some in reasonable quantities?

    1. JassMan
      Trollface

      Re: golf balls

      They probably pay some Chinese peasant 50c a week to colour them in with a 2B pencil. Yes it is graphene but not a large sheet. Indeed a large sheet would probably be impossible to bend around a golf ball without it flattening out again and drifting off.

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