Graphene applications: what is graphene used for? - Page 28

Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) has provided an update on its THERMAL-XR (TXR) product, noting that since the recent Australian government approval for GMG to produce and sell Thermal-XR at scale, the company has driven sales activities and bolstered related production capacity.

GMG said important first sales at scale have recently been secured, including an order for over AUD$130,000 (over USD$86,770), and its efforts to widen potential market segments are finding positive reception, providing strong encouragement for continued sales focus targeting near-term notable revenues. The recent order for THERMAL-XR, from a large Australian eco-friendly resort for the coating of nearly 200 air conditioners, represents the largest single order for THERMAL-XR, the company said.

U.S-based specialty chemical company, Mito Material Solutions, recently announced its first ready-to-pour graphene product. In partnership with industrial coatings manufacturer Forrest Technical Coatings, Mito has harnessed its patented technology platform for the production of functionalized graphene into ready-to-pour hybrid additives with chemical and physical bonding points.

The first two available ready-to-pour products are Mito E-Go Res-1, a laminating epoxy resin, and Mito Tri-Hdnr-1, an epoxy hardener. The ready-made products may be used separately but their formulas are optimized to work together.

Malaysian energy company PETRONAS has released a new graphene-based technology for corrosion protection. Called ProShield+, the product is a paint additive for steel structures developed in-house.

The composition is claimed to have three times the water barrier qualities of traditional epoxy paint, which helps to increase adhesion and resilience to abrasion and UV light. Major paint systems can be enhanced with ProShield+ to double the typical surface coating lifespan and extend it to up to 16 years, the company claims.

Stolt Tankers and Graphite Innovations & Technology (GIT) have signed a two-year agreement to apply GIT’s XGIT-PROP graphene-based marine coating to the propellers of 25 Stolt Tankers ships during 2023.

XGIT-PROP is an eco-friendly, graphene-based product that reduces marine growth and improves propulsion efficiency while preventing harmful toxins or biocides from being released into the ocean. This application supports Stolt Tankers’ decarbonization ambitions and reinforces the company’s aim for sustainability.

Researchers from the University of Amsterdam, New York University and Spain's CSIC have developed a way to build micrometer-size models of atomic graphene using 'patchy particles’ - particles which are large enough to be easily visible in a microscope but small enough to reproduce many of the properties of actual atoms, can interact with the same coordination as the atoms in graphene, and form the same structures.

Using these patchy particles, the team built a model system and used it to obtain insight into the defects in 2D materials, including their formation and evolution over time. 

It was recently reported that First Graphene is working with solar company Greatcell Australia on graphene enhancements to perovskite solar cell technology. 

Perovskites are a family of materials with a unique crystal structure that have potential for many applications, the most prominent of which is low cost, efficient solar cells. Greatcell Australia has established a pilot plant in New South Wales and is in the advanced stages of testing its range of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with manufacturers around the world. Greatcell is aiming to fit its modular production lines into 40-foot shipping containers, due in part to the easier assembly and reduced number of steps to produce PSCs compared to silicon solar cells.

Sparc Technologies has announced the commissioning of Sparc's ecosparc commercial production facility. The state of the art facility aims to enable Sparc to produce commercial quantities of the graphene additive product, ecosparc®. Target markets include the global coatings industry, composites and other graphene additive applications.

The new production facility will enable Sparc to provide commercial quantities of graphene additive product for trials with global coatings companies. The Company is currently undertaking evaluations with potential global end users with results from these evaluations expected in Q3 and Q4 CY23 respectively. In parallel, the company is pursuing opportunities to target Australian coatings companies that are looking to enhance the anti-corrosive and environmental performance of their products, with the addition of ecosparc.

Gerdau Graphene, a nanotechnology company focused on the production, development, and commercialization of graphene-enhanced materials for industrial applications, has announced that it has landed the first sales of its graphene-enhanced Poly-G PE-07GM polyethylene masterbatch. The additive is suitable for the production of films, profiles, and sheets formed through the extrusion processes. 

The new thermoplastic products created using Poly-G PE-07GM are said to be stronger and offer greater overall performance while costing less to manufacture and producing significantly less waste across the value chain. Poly-G PE-07GM was piloted in a series of industrial applications within Gerdau’s factories before
commercialization, including as a film for construction nail packaging. Gerdau found that by using the new, 25% thinner graphene-enhanced plastic film, far fewer nails perforated the packaging. As a result, Gerdau reported a 39% reduction in the volume of discarded damaged packaging and a 7% increase in
film productivity.

Scientists from Imperial College London and Catania University & CNR-IMM have developed a novel graphene ink that can be used to detect a variety of chemical substances when layered on top of commercially available printed circuit boards (PCBs) as a thin film.

In their recent paper, the team demonstrated a novel and versatile sensing platform, based on electrolyte-gated graphene field-effect transistors, for easy, low-cost and scalable production of chemical sensor test strips. The Lab-on-PCB platform is enabled by low-boiling, low-surface-tension sprayable graphene ink deposited on a substrate manufactured using a commercial printed circuit board process. 

Researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) have developed graphene-enhanced biosensor technology that enables the operation of devices, such as robots and machines, solely through thought control.

 The technology has significant potential in fields such as defense applications, advanced manufacturing, aerospace and healthcare. The advanced brain-computer interface was developed by Distinguished Professor Chin-Teng Lin and Professor Francesca Iacopi, from the UTS Faculty of Engineering and IT, in collaboration with the Australian Army and Defense Innovation Hub.