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In 2D-graphene material, carbon atoms are arranged in a honeycomb structure
The British government ordered a national security investigation into another suspected acquisition of a sensitive technology company related to China. The latest investigation involves an attempt to acquire Perpetuus, a Welsh graphene materials company, led by a Chinese scholar.
Graphene is considered a “revolutionary” new material. The UK is a world leader in graphene material research.
Perpetuus in South Wales was established in 2013. The company’s latest annual accounts show that the company’s annual output value in 2020 is only 479,000 pounds. Although the company is small, it is said to have the latest inventions and a quarter of the UK’s graphene plasma output.
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The British Secretary of Commerce Kwasi Kwarteng stated that the reason for opening the investigation was “public interest and national security.”
British government stepped in again
British Secretary of Commerce Kwasi Kwarteng asked the Competition and Markets Agency (CMA) to open an investigation into a plan to acquire Perpetuus, a Welsh company called Taurus Internatioal Ltd, in the morning. It is reported that the leader of the acquisition is a Chinese scholar who works at a university in Wales.
Minister Kuatten stated that his reasons for ordering the investigation were mainly based on “public interest and national security.” According to an announcement on the British government website, the Competition and Markets Agency will complete the investigation before February 7, 2022.
According to documents released by the British government, the main reason for the Secretary of Commerce’s vigilance is the size and importance of Perpetuus. The documents show that although the British company has only 14 employees and an annual output value of less than 500,000 pounds (US$690,000), the companyās annual output of graphene plasma accounts for more than a quarter of the countryās output.
This is also the second time in recent months that the British government has intervened to investigate a sensitive technology case related to cross-border mergers and acquisitions in China.
Not long ago, British Prime Minister Johnson, under public pressure, asked National Security Advisor Sir Stephen Lovegrove to purchase the UK from Nexperia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wingtech, a Chinese semiconductor company. An investigation into the Newport Wafer Factory (NWF) in Wales with 200mm wafers was launched.
The above survey results have not yet been released.
The British government explained that the national security investigation is not only for a certain country, and pointed out that they are also launching a national security investigation for the US company’s acquisition of the large British defense company Ultra Electronics and Meggitt.
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The registered address of Taurus International Limited is a residential building near Lewisham, southeast London
Taurus International with limited information
A BBC reporter’s investigation found that the company preparing to acquire Perpetuus is Taurus International Limited, which was registered in London only in 2020, but this company has very little information in the public domain. According to the company’s registration information with the British government, the company’s registered address is a residential house near Lewisham in southeast London.
According to the British government department, their investigation also involved Dr. Zhou Zhongfu, a scholar from China who led the acquisition plan.
Perpetuus’s website describes Dr. Zhou Zhongfu as “the chief nanotechnology scientist” and “a world-class authority on 2D materials and applications such as graphene.”
According to Perpetuus, Dr. Zhou Zhongfu was a professor at a Chinese university. After studying in the UK, he worked in the Department of Physics at Aberystwyth University in Wales, UK.
BBC reporters have separately contacted Perpetuus and Dr. Zhou Zhongfu, hoping to get their views on the above-mentioned news events. As of press time, Perpetuus said it has no comment on the above news. Dr. Zhou Zhongfu has not yet responded.
A physicist from the University of Manchester in the UK took the lead in announcing that it would be made into a separate graphene in 2004, and therefore won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.
“MagicMaterial“–Graphene
Graphene is a carbon-atom hexagonal honeycomb lattice plane material with only one carbon atom thickness. It has ultra-thin, ultra-tough, and highly conductive properties. It is considered to have the potential to bring revolutionary development to electronic technology and other technologies.
Graphene was once considered a hypothetical theoretical structure, a “magic material” that could not exist independently.
The physicists Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov (Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov) of the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom published a report in the “Science” magazine in 2004, announcing the production of separate graphene, The two therefore shared the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics. At that time, they announced their famous method of peeling graphene from graphite with tape paper.
Due to the huge potential of graphene in industrial applications, scientists have been seeking ways to produce defect-free graphene on a large scale.
Scientists such as Jonathan Coleman of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, have now discovered that many laboratory mills can be used to produce graphene, including kitchen mills.