Global Graphene Group (G3) - Page 2

Ohio-based Angstron Materials has developed a group of cost-effective thermal foil products that can be customized for handheld devices and other products. The company says that its foil sheets have been qualified for use by a major mobile electronics company. Such thermal foils can be used for the technology beneath devices' screens that conducts heat away from internal electronic components and batteries to help maintain optimal performance.

Angstron’s thermal foils are available in a variety of grades. The company states that its foils are thinner than other products on the market and so give manufacturers greater design flexibility than competing methods. Angstron’s foil sheets also can be sourced with equivalent or greater thermal conductivity.

Angstron Materials began to offer masterbatches of graphene-enhanced polymers. Those materials offer superior mechanical, electrical and thermal properties - above the base polymer. Angstron can provide the materials in a pellet form or as a strand for use in FDM 3D Printing.

Angstron has a team of composite scientists and engineers that can use the in-house compounding equipment and then masterbatch material to order in a timely manner. Through their industrial partners, also rapidly scale-up nanocomposite compounding to meet industrial demand.

Angstron Materials rolled out several new graphene products. The products (which will actually become available over the next few months) include a line of graphene-enhanced anode materials for lithium-ion batteries.

Angstron calls the Li-Ion battery materials "NANO GCA" and they say that this product line combines high capacity silicon materials with mechanically reinforcing, and electrically conductive graphene. This results in a high capacity anode capable of supporting hundreds of charge/discharge cycles.

Thermene launched the second-generation Thermene product, which is a graphene-based high-performance thermal paste. Thermene is used to cool processor and video cards. The second generation product offers better performance (up to 12° Celsius cooler than the first generation) and is also cheaper by 25%.

The company says that the graphene-based paste handily beats the performance of Arctic Silver 5 and other standard thermal pastes by an average of 7° Celsius. The $14.99 product comes in a 3 mL syringe which improves the application experience, and one syringe of Thermene can be applied on up to 15 standard-size processors. The 2nd-gen Thermene is now shipping worldwide.

Angstron Materials (owned by Nanotek Instruments and based in Ohio, USA) is a graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) and single-layer graphene sheets developer and producer.

Ian Fuller, the company's marketing and business development chief, was kind enough to answer a few questions we had regarding the company's technology and business. Ian joined Nanotek Instruments in 2006, focusing on fuel cells. He later joined the Angstron Materials team.

Angstron Materials installed new dry rooms in a building space adjacent to its manufacturing facility. The company is also seeking to raise an additional $8 million to $10 million to scale up production and bring its technology to the marketplace.

The company received specialized HVAC and dehumidification equipment earlier in 2013 and installed them in the new dry rooms. Angstron says that these new rooms provide a controlled environment that will allow them to accelerate the development and production of their nano graphene anode material for high performance batteries.

Turkey's Grafen Chemical Industries has selected Angstron Materials to supply them with graphene materails for a polymer nanocomposite application for electromagnetic shielding material.

Grafen will buy both pristine and oxidized graphene products from Angstron and plans to commercialize the EMI product for full-scale production.

Angstron Materials have been awarded a new patent (US #8,114,373) for its next-step method that effectively exfoliates layered graphene and offers several key advantages. Using this method one can produce nano graphene platelets (NGPs) with a thickness thinner than 100nm and in many cases thinner than 10 nm or as thin as 0.34 nm to 1.02 nm.

Angstron's process does not use undesirable chemicals, time-intensive wash steps or require high exfoliation temperatures. In addition, the method does not produce contaminated waste water and its associated disposal costs.

Angstron Materials developed a new graphene-modified lubricant, and has been awarded a US patent for the material (US #8,222,190). The material is made by dispersing single-layer nano graphene platelets (NGPs) at a weight ratio of 0.001% to 60% (based on total fluid weight) in a fluid containing a petroleum or synthetic oil.

Angstron has demonstrated the ability of the new lubricant to provide improved thermal conductivity and friction reduction. These characteristics help extend wear performance. In addition to exceptional viscosity stability, the thermal conductivity values for the NGP-modified fluid are the highest on record for fluid materials.

Energy storage maker Maxwell Technologies said it received more than $500,000 in state and federal (US) funding for energy storage research and development programs. One of these programs is a testing and evaluation project of new graphene material produced by Nanotek Instruments. These testing are performed to determine how graphene might be used to increase the energy density of ultracapacitors.