A digital survey to understand the use of advanced materials in the United Kingdom

Understanding the health risks associated with advanced materials will help with their safe development, use and commercialisation, which will contribute to the future economic needs of the UK and a net zero future. To undertake targeted, relevant research in this field, it is important to first identify the main advanced materials that are commercially manufactured and used in the UK including those at a commercialisation pilot stage. To achieve this, a survey was developed and distributed widely across a network of advanced materials stakeholders between June 2023 and January 2024. The survey asked respondents to identify the category, physical state and scale of advanced materials with which they are working, and the tasks and activities undertaken. Fifty two anonymous responses were received from a broad range of organisations representing all stages of the lifecycle of advanced materials. All surveyed material categories were represented in the responses. Almost 40% said that they worked with composite materials with the single category selected most frequently being fibre-reinforced composites. The most common physical state of the advanced materials handled was "powder" followed by "liquid" and the range of quantities handled per year had a median mass and volume of 1,000 kg and 10,000 L respectively. Many different materials were identified as "soon to become commercially available", with 5 of the 16 responses including graphene.