Engineers from University of Manchester made a graphene light bulb that has lower manufacturing costs and lower emissions compared to LED bulbs. The light bulb is the first ever product which is made out of graphene.

Earlier this week, the product was announced on the website of University of Manchester. The developers, who made the graphene light bulb, said that the bulbs are set to be launched in the United Kingdom market and will be on the shelves in the next few months at an affordable price.

Deputy President and deputy vice-chancellor of University of Manchester professor Colin Bailey said, “This light bulb shows that graphene products are becoming a reality, just a little more than a decade after it was first isolated – a very short time in scientific terms”.

Bailey further stated that graphene light bulb is just the start. Researchers have been looking at a range of exciting applications, all of which have started in the Manchester. Graphene is about one million times thinner than hair, but still it is 200 times stronger than steel. The material is the world’s first two-dimensional material and is most conductive.

Sir Andre Geim and Sir Kostya Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010 for their work. They were the first to isolate graphene back in 2004 at the University of Manchester. After that, the university set up the National Institute of Graphene (NIG) on its campus, which opened last week. The NIG has been set up to make the most out of their findings. It was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Currently, there are more than 30 companies that have partnered with the Institute, but the graphene light bulb is the first product to have been released from it.