Changzhou in east China's Jiangsu province has become a stronghold for China's graphene industry with over 100 graphene companies clustering and a full industrial chain taking shape, according to the 2016-2017 China Graphene Development Report, released on Wednesday by China Economic Information Service.
The report says that the grapheme-related industries in the city generate an annual output value exceeding 2 billion yuan, A number of graphene companies in Changzhou have gone public, said Fei Gaoyun, the Party Secretary of Changzhou, adding that the city starts building of the "graphene town" at the Xitaihu Science and Technology Industrial Park, which was approved by the Provincial Government as one of the first 25 province-level special towns in Jiangsu on May 3.
Graphene, nicknamed "black gold" and "king of new material", is the thinnest and strongest nanomaterial that can most efficiently conduct heat and electricity.
Changzhou started to form strategies for the development of the graphene industry in as early as 2011, when the Jiangnan Graphene Research Institute was founded as the world's first institute on graphene R&D and industrialization.
The government has played a significant role in the development of the graphene industry in China, while graphene companies are largely on their own in other countries, said Feng Guanping, the honorary president of the Jiangnan Graphene Research Institute.
The leading role of China's graphene industry in the world is partly contributed to the public service and support of the Chinese government, according to Feng.
Due to its remarkable development in graphene, Changzhou is hailed by many as the graphene base in China, or even in the world.
On Thursday, the 2017 World Graphene Innovation Conference was held in the city, attracting leading roles in the graphene industry from all over the world.
Konstantin Novoselov, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 with Andre Geim for their work on graphene, said at the conference that the characteristics of graphene can satisfy needs of multiple sectors and the key is how to control it with different techniques.
Novoselov also expressed hopes for further and deeper cooperation with Jiangsu. Vladimir Falko, professor of the University of Manchester in England, said graphene is expected to be widely used after 2023 and the graphene industrialization process might be shortened.
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