Navigating the Graphene Maze: Health, Environment, and Innovation

The largest EU research initiative ever launched has come to a successful end: The Graphene Flagship was officially concluded at the end of last year. Empa researchers were also involved, such as molecular biologist Peter Wick, who was part of the Health and Environment work package from the very beginning – and has just summarized the findings in this area with international colleagues in a comprehensive review article in the specialist journal ACS Nano.

Think big. Despite its research topic, this could well be the motto of the Graphene Flagship, which was launched in 2013: With an overall budget of one billion Euros, it was Europe’s largest research initiative to date, alongside the Human Brain Flagship, which was launched at the same time. The same applies to the review article on the effects of graphene and related materials on health and the environment, which Empa researchers Peter Wick and Tina Bürki just published together with 30 international colleagues in the scientific journal ACS Nano; on 57 pages, they summarize the findings on the health and ecological risks of graphene materials, the reference list includes almost 500 original publications.