We interview the organizers of GrapChina, china's leading graphene event

The 2023 China International Graphene Innovation Conference (GRAPCHINA 2023), will be held in Shanghai, China from November 10 to 12, 2023. The conference will be jointly hosted by the National Graphene Innovation Center, Shanghai University and the Graphene Alliance (CGIA). Minyang Lu, the Deputy Secretary-General of the CGIA, was kind enough to answer a few questions we had regarding the upcoming conference.

Hello Minyang, thank you for your time. Can you tell us more about the GRAPCHINA event?

The International Graphene Innovation Conference has been successfully held for nine years. The number of participants has set a new record year each year, and its influence has continued to improve. The nine sessions attracted more than 4,000 enterprises, 23,000 participants and 1,200 experts in new materials field, which came from over 30 countries and regions around the world. At present, it has developed into a gathering place, a vanue and an international event for the world's cutting-edge graphene technology achievements and innovative products. The graphene application expo held simultaneously with the conference, will continuously inject new vitality into the development of the global graphene industry by gathering the global graphene industrialization achievements. 

The 2023 International Graphene Innovation Conference (GRAPCHINA 2023) will be organized by the China Innovation Alliance of the Graphene Industry (CGIA), National Graphene Innovation Center (NGIC) and Shanghai University in Shanghai on November 10-12 of the year 2023. This year, GRAPCHINA 2023 will focus on the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, international cooperation, and industrial and supply chain, we will work with end users to create a number of commercialization forums. 

Q: What can attendees expect from the event in 2023?

Here are some opportunity highlights:

1. Attendees can communicate face-to-face with Professor Andre Geim as well as global experts in the graphene field.

2. Attendees can communicate with China’s outstanding graphene companies on application and industrialization situations, such as Sixth Element Materials, Fuxi Technology, Moxi Graphene Technology, etc.

3. This year attendees will have a chance to communicate and discuss cooperation with Chinese customers, especially some top 500 Chinese companies such as Haier, China Electric, Liugong Group, and Goertek.

4. CGIA and NGIC can help attendees to connect with local governments and market customers in China.

Q: This is China's largest graphene event, can you tell us how many attendees, exhibitors and speakers are you expecting?

In Grapchina 2023, there is going to be 500-600 attendees, 50+ exhibitors and 100 speakers.

Q: What are the main topics covered by this event?

The main theme of GRAPCHINA 2023 is "Gather Graphene Hope, Explore Carbon Future".  Except the plenary, we also set several parallel forums:

• The Forum of Graphene in Future Health will focus on the transformation of the future health industry under the innovation wave of graphene and related new technologies, and discuss the application potential of graphene in biomedicine, medical treatment, physiotherapy, environmental protection and other fields.
• The Forum of Graphene in Future Intelligence will discuss the graphene  technical and industrial development trends in the fields like sensors, brain-computer interfaces, virtual reality, future communications and etc.
• The Forum of Graphene in Future Energy will explore the possible contribution that graphene can make to the sustainable development of future energy in the context of global energy transition.
• The Forum of Graphene in Future Manufacturing will discuss the positive role of graphene related materials in continuously enhancing the competitiveness of traditional industries to promote a new chapter in the integration of traditional industries, emerging industries, and future industries, and thus to build a strong support for the "backbone" of the manufacturing industry.
• The Forum of Graphene in Future Life will mainly focus on the development of graphene applications in household appliances, smart wear, textiles, automobiles, agriculture and other fields.
• The Forum of Frontier of Graphene Research will present the cutting-edge science and technology development in graphene and related materials.

Q: In recent years, we are seeing the graphene industry move from an R&D phase into an industrialization phase - although progress is slower than expected. What are your views on the matureness of graphene technologies in China? Will this be reflected by GrapChina's agenda?

Judging from the development history of new materials, graphene, as a new material that is less than 20 years old, has actually developed very quickly. Whether in Europe or China, we can see a lot of graphene-related new products. The development of China's graphene industry is closely related to China's own industrial foundation. China is one of the world's largest manufacturers of new energy batteries, cars, smartphones, textiles, etc., so we can see the rapid application of graphene in these fields. At the same time, China has a very huge single market and the needs of residents can easily be amplified. So graphene technology that has low technical barriers but can bring improved applications will be quickly commercialized.

GRAPCHINA expo will present graphene products that are beginning to be widely used in the Chinese market. Our conference will also invite companies that have achieved large-scale applications in different application fields to share their stories and experiences. We will also invite downstream applications companies come to post their technology or product requirements.

Q: The graphene industry in China is diverse and impressive - but companies outside of China are not aware of many of the advances and technologies. Do you think attending GrapChina may help in that regard? How open are Chinese companies to global customers and partners?

China and Europe have very rich cooperation and exchanges in graphene scientific research, but relatively speaking, inter-industry exchanges are relatively scarce. This situation is caused, of course, on the one hand because the three-year epidemic has posed obstacles to communication, and on the other hand, it is also because both parties are more focused on their local markets. GRAPCHINA has been committed to promoting cooperation and exchanges between upstream and downstream.

We have helped upstream and downstream companies to complete more than 100 graphene technology or product dockings. Chinese companies have always been completely open to global advanced technologies and professional partners. They are eager to cooperate with all parties to improve the shortcomings of their own products. We also very much welcome overseas companies to come to the conference to promote their technology and product advantages. We hope that GRAPCHINA can become a platform for global graphene industry cooperation.

Q: What do you think are the most promising graphene applications in the next 1-3 years?

At present, graphene heat dissipation technology has been widely used in the field of mobile phones. We believe that in the next three years, we will see graphene heat dissipation more widely used in high-power devices that require high-flux heat dissipation.

In addition, we knew that many technologies are about to begin pilot testing, and many projects are about to complete pilot testing and prepare to enter the market. The direct application fields of these technology products include household appliances, building materials, power transmission, etc. Although they have a wide range of applications, their technical features focus on significantly reducing energy waste or raw material consumption on the basis of original products. We believe that in the next 1-3 years, we will see these graphene technologies playing an important role in low-carbon emission reduction.