Retina Graphene and visible opportunity for the visually impaired

Physicists at Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM), Germany are using graphene to develop artificial retinas that can make optical prostheses to help blind people see their surroundings.

>>>Successfully recreating retinal cells with 3D inkjet printers

Graphene is a metamaterial composed of a layer of carbon atoms linked together in a honeycomb pattern, very light, very hard but extremely flexible, flexible. When implanting the Graphene artificial retina into the eye, light is converted into electrical impulses that run through optical nerves to the brain. Later, these signals turn into images in the brain, allowing the blind to see.

Previously, eye retinal transplantation has been studied but failed because the material is not compatible with the body. Meanwhile, Graphene is significantly more biocompatible than traditional materials due to its high flexibility and chemical strength.

Graphene was discovered in 2003 by physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at the University of Manchester, giving them the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010. It has outstanding properties such as 200 times stiffer than steel, conductivity. 100 times more electricity than copper and flexible like rubber.

Commercial application of Graphene is very large in many areas such as computers, military, telecommunications . especially in medical technology. This application includes hospital disinfection, cancer tumor detection, DNA sequencing .

Leading the TUM team, Jose Garrido said they were admitted to the European Union's Flagship Graphene program to continue studying the topic. The TUM team's research initiative is part of the EU's largest Graphene Flagship Program, with a total budget of up to 1 billion EURO (£ 800 million).

The goal of the EU is to apply Graphene to all fields in Europe over a period of 10 years, thereby creating economic growth, new jobs, new opportunities in Europe for investors and workers. dynamic.