PhD Graphene NOWNANO CDT / Programme details

The Graphene NOWNANO offers a four-year doctoral training programme leading to the award of a PhD in Nanoscience. Our aim is to train the next generation of scientists who will be able to realise the huge potential of graphene and related 2D materials and drive innovation in the UK, Europe and beyond. Graphene has been dubbed a miracle material due to the unique combination of superior electronic, mechanical, optical, chemical and biocompatible properties suitable for a large number of applications. The potential of other 2D materials (e.g. boron nitride, transition metal and gallium dichalcogenides) has become clear more recently and is now leading to the development of the so-called `materials on demand, i.e. materials with desired properties, not readily available in nature.

There has been an explosion of research and development activity in these two areas all over the world which has led to companies such as inov-8 successfully incorporating graphene into an award winning commercially available product.

The University of Manchester is the birthplace of graphene research and has continued to lead the field in a huge research expansion from the fundamental physics of graphene and related 2D materials to chemistry, engineering, characterisation and bioapplications. Lancaster University is an important partner, providing complementary expertise in theoretical modelling and niche experimental techniques.

The Graphene NOWNANO CDT provides a wide-ranging interdisciplinary PhD programme that develops postgraduate researchers into thinking and working collaboratively across traditional disciplinary boundaries. 

Programme Structure: 

Year 1 - September to March

Taught component of the programme. Students complete four lecture courses that have been custom developed to cover different aspects of the science and technology of nanomaterials and their applications. Two enquiry-based learning (EBL) projects are completed and two extended lab projects. EBL and lab projects are done in small groups comprising students with different undergraduate backgrounds, which facilitates peer-to-peer learning and provides experience of working as part of a research team.

During this time students will decide upon a project which they will undertake for the rest of the programme. (Link to research projects).

Year 1 April - end of Year 4

Students work on their research projects with their supervisors whilst partaking in CDT events and further skills training.

The Graphene NOWNANO CDT is unique in that PhD students select their research project during the first six months of the programme rather than having a project pre-allocated prior to admission. 

We aim to offer students a new and updated list of research projects every year by academics from all participating departments at The University of Manchester.  The majority of the projects are interdisciplinary, involving collaborations between research groups in different academic departments, so most students will have at least two supervisors.

Students are provided with a project booklet that includes the project title, the project background and descriptive outline as well as the contact details of each supervisory team.  A poster presentation session is arranged so that students can discuss each of the projects of interest to them in more detail directly with the project supervisor.  We strongly recommend that each student arranges a further meeting to visit the facilities and members of the wider supervisory team before making their final selection.  

Here are some of the research projects chosen by the 2020 cohort to give you an idea of the types of projects that you could possibly undertake: 

• Understanding intercalation of few-layer crystals: a physicist's approach

• Quantum twistronics in superconductors and magnetic materials

• Molecular transport through atomically thin capillaries fabricated using van der Waals assembly

• Optimising van der Waals heterostructures using transmission electron microscopy

• Modelling interfacial quantum phenomena in 2D materials

• Unconventional magnetic orders and excitations in 2D materials

• Electrophysiological characterisation of epilepsy in glioblastoma mice using graphene transistor arrays

• Nanoscale thermal management

• Self-heating systems based on graphene/polymer nanocomposites

PhD students enrolled on the Graphene NOWNANO programme receive initial state-of-the-art training in fundamentals of graphene and 2D materials, their applications, and key techniques. A 6-month training programme is followed by a three and a half year research project that students select from available projects in over 30 top-rated research groups across nine disciplines/university departments. Academic research within the CDT will be complemented by direct engagement with a network of industrial and academic partners .

To prepare students for truly innovative interdisciplinary PhD projects, the Graphene NOWNANO CDT programme commences with a six-month taught programme of lecture course and literature and lab based projects. These cover a wide range of topics including fundamental and applied materials physics, chemistry, engineering, technology (nanofabrication, self-assembly, device manufacturing), characterisation (spectroscopic techniques, microscopy) and applications from device engineering to nanomedicine.

The programme consists of four lecture courses, two extended 12-week laboratory projects and two enquiry-based learning projects.

The emphasis is on team work, with the projects typically done in small groups of mixed-subject backgrounds. So if you are a physicist, you can expect to work with a chemist, an engineer and a biologist, etc.

Assessment will be a combination of group and individual work in the form of presentations, worksheet calculations, online tests/quizzes, lab reports and written reports.

Being part of the CDT means that we are in contact with students in departments other than our own. I find that it is often useful to talk about our own research with peers who are not directly working on exactly the same thing. Being part of the CDT means I get the added benefit of learning about other research areas related to nanomaterials.

Bonnie Tsim CDT student researching Electron/electron correlations in two-dimensional materials (2DM) and 2DM heterostructures

As a CDT student you will have access to state of the art laboratories and clean rooms based within the National Graphene Institute, Henry Royce Institute and the Graphene Engineering and Innovation Centre.  As we all the labs based within the department of your own research group.