Nanomaterials have many advanced applications, from bio-medicine to flexible electronics to energy storage, and the broad interest in graphene-based materials and devices means that high annual tonnages will be required to meet this demand. However, manufacturing at the required scale remains unfeasible until economic and environmental obstacles are resolved. Liquid exfoliation of graphite is the preferred scalable method to prepare large quantities of good quality graphene, but only low concentrations are achieved and the solvents habitually employed are toxic. Furthermore, good dispersions of nanomaterials in organic solvents are crucial for the synthesis of many types of nanocomposites. To address the performance and safety issues of solvent use, a bespoke approach to solvent selection was developed and the renewable solvent Cyrene was identified as having excellent properties. Graphene dispersions in Cyrene were found to be an order of magnitude more concentrated than those achieved in N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP). Key attributes to this success are optimum solvent polarity, and importantly a high viscosity. We report the role of viscosity as crucial for the creation of larger and less defective graphene flakes. These findings can equally be applied to the dispersion of other layered bi-dimensional materials, where alternative solvent options could be used as drop-in replacements for established processes without disruption or the need to use specialized equipment. Thus, the discovery of a benign yet high performance graphene processing solvent enhances the efficiency, sustainability and commercial potential of this ever-growing field, particularly in the area of bulk material processing for large volume applications.

The controlled pyrolysis of mesoporous polysaccharide-derived materials, from starch and alginic acid, formed carbonaceous materials (Starbons^®) and were demonstrated as efficient materials for the removal of dyes from wastewater. The resulting materials were characterised by solid-state NMR, N₂ adsorption porosimetry, FT-IR, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and tunnelling electron microscopy (TEM). The material’s efficiency for dye adsorption was tested using methylene blue (MB) and acid blue 92 (AB) dyes. Adsorption data indicated that the mesoporosity of the material had a far greater influence on the adsorption capacity and speed of adsorption, than high surface area alone. Mesoporous Starbon^® (A300) was evaluated against commercially available activated carbon (Norit) and demonstrated a superior adsorption capacity of MB; 186 mg g⁻¹vs. 42 mg g⁻¹. The kinetic activity of Starbon^® was also determined with A800 showing the fastest rate of adsorption compared to S800 and Norit, suggesting that it is a more suitable material for water purification.

The effect of systematically increasing chain length of a series of linear α,ω-dicarboxylic acids (DCAs) from C₆ to C₁₈ diacids and a cyclic diacid, Pripol 1009F, on thermal and mechanical properties of the resultant epoxy thermosets derived from epoxidized linseed oil (ELO) are reported. Different techniques including differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), solvent extraction, FT-IR, NMR, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), tensile tests and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) are used in this study. The results indicated that the obtained epoxy resins were highly crosslinked polymers with only a small fraction of low molecular weight soluble materials. The glass transition temperature (T_g), tensile strength, Young's modulus, elongation at break and toughness decreased while the thermal stability increased with respect to increasing chain length of DCAs. Interestingly, strain hardening was only observed for adipic acid (C₆) sample for which the best mechanical properties observed.