‘Graphene – IPA Ink’, by James Macleod, from the University of Cambridge, shows powdered graphite in alcohol which produces a conductive ink. The ink is forced at high pressure through micrometre-scale capillaries made of diamond. This rips the layers apart resulting in a smooth, conductive material in solution.
The image came first in two categories, Innovation, and Equipment & Facilities, as well as winning overall against other picture entries featuring research in action, in the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s (EPSRC) competition – now in its fourth year.
James Macleod said the photograph came about from his work to create conductive inks for printing flexible electronics. His team at Cambridge is focused on optimising recipes for use in different printing methods onto a range of surfaces. “This was the first time we had used alcohol to create our ink and I was struck by how mesmerising it looked while mixing,” he said.
Macleod told PE that he thinks these kind of competitions are important for engineers and scientists to get involved in because “a lot of what we do can be difficult to explain to people”. “Photographs can capture important snippets of research, things that can engage people and draw their interest and make them actually want to find out what is behind that moment,” he added.
The competition’s five categories were: Eureka & Discovery, Equipment & Facilities, People & Skills, Innovation, and Weird & Wonderful.
One of the judges was physicist, oceanographer and broadcaster Helen Czerski, from UCL, she said that scientists and engineers are often so busy focusing on the technical details of their research that they can be "blind to what everyone else sees first: the aesthetics of their work". Czerski added that the competition is a "wonderful reminder" of the emotional and artistic aspects of science.
Tom Rodden, EPSRC’s deputy chief executive, said that the images are a great way to engage the public with the research that the organisation funds as well as to “inspire everyone” to take an interest in science and engineering.
The competition received more than 100 entries which were drawn from researchers in receipt of EPSRC funding.
Here is a look at some of the other top images to have won this year:
1st in Eureka & Discovery:
A 3D printed gripper which was programmed to lift delicate, geometrical complex objects like a lightbulb, pneumatically rather than using sensors. Credit: Khaled Elgeneidy, Loughborough University.
2nd in Eureka & Discovery:
A scanning electron microscope image showing the surface of a silicon chip, patterned to create a one metre ultra-thin optical wire, just one millionth of a metre wide made into a spiral and wrapped into an area the size of a square millimetre. Credit: Rob Francis-Jones, University of Bath.
1st in Peoples & Skills:
Researcher Michael Coto with a local student in Vingunguti, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, testing and purifying polluted water using new solar active catalysts. Credit: Michael Coto, University of Cambridge.
2nd in Innovation:
An image captured on an iPhone 4s through an optical microscope that shows the variety of textures appearing on the surface of a silicon solar cell, not dissimilar to pyramids surrounded by a sea of dunes in a desert, but with the size of a human hair. Credit: Dr Diego Alonso-Álvarez, Imperial College London.
1st in Weird & Wonderful:
Tiny biodegradable polymer particles resembling golf balls being developed to target infectious diseases and cancers. Only 0.04mm across, they form part of scaffolds which are being studied to see if they can support the growth of healthy new cells. Credit: Dr Marta Alvarez Paino, University of Nottingham.
All winning images can be found here.