Professor Baohua Jia and Dr Han Lin lead a team developing the Bolt Electricity Storage Technology (BEST) battery – a graphene oxide-based supercapacitor offering high performance and low-cost energy storage.

The technology could, according to one investor, make chemical batteries a thing of the past.

"The battery is very thin, it's carbon based and it's environmentally friendly," Professor Jia says. "We ?led a patent on the technology last year."

The technology is on the brink of becoming a commercial prototype.

Investment in its development will soon be under way through Graphene Solutions, a joint venture between graphite miner First Graphite Resources (FGR) and Melbourne electronics company Kremford Pty Ltd.