The National Graphene Innovation Center in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: nbfb0574]

Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province recently received approval to establish the National Graphene Innovation Center, local media reported.

The innovation center, the first of its kind in the nation, will be upgraded from the graphene manufacturing and innovation center in Ningbo's Zhenhai district. 

Hailed as "the most subversive new material discovered in this century", grapheme has huge application potential in many fields, including energy storage and sensors.

Ningbo is among the first group of cities in the nation to launch a grapheme industrial application project. The city has made a number of technological breakthroughs in the field since 2013.

In fact, China has become one of the most active countries in the world in the development and industrialization of graphene. In 2021, China's graphene patent applications accounted for about 80 percent of the world's total, and the market value of related products has reached 16 billion yuan ($2.2 billion).

The national innovation center's establishment will boost the commercialization of grapheme research and promote the formation of an industrial chain in Ningbo, noted a head official at the Ningbo municipal bureau of economy and information technology.