Graphene composites: introduction and market status - Page 14

Haydale has announced that it has partnered with U.S-based 401 Tech Bridge to provide a HT200 Plasma Reactor and advanced materials support for their innovation ecosystem.

The HT200 Plasma Reactor will be utilized in the 401 Tech Bridge Advanced Materials and Technology Center, managed by the University of Rhode Island (URI), to support material commercialization efforts of Graphene Composites and other local composites and textiles-based businesses. This adds to 401 Tech Bridge's capability supporting its ambition to accelerate the adoption of new materials and support companies' efforts in developing new products.

First Graphene has reported results from field testing of the PureGRAPH-enhanced bucket wear liner, which have reportedly shown an almost six times reduction in average abrasion loss compared with a standard polyurethane liner. The bucket wear liners were installed at a major iron ore producer’s load-out facility in the Pilbara of Western Australia, beginning in mid-2019. A standard wear liner and a graphene-enhanced ArmourGRAPH wear liner ran simultaneously in the same location for the 62-week period.

In addition, First Graphene has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Brazil’s largest steel producer, Gerdau. The MOU is currently non-binding, and allows for the two companies to negotiate terms towards a binding agreement, which would establish an initial commercial agreement for distribution and collaboration.

Gnanomat recently announced the launch of its new commercially-available graphene-based nanocomposite.

Graphene Silver nanocomposite, a product supplied as a dry powder, is made of pristine graphene coated with silver nanoparticles. This type of material has been shown to have great potential in scientific literature, in applications such as inks on textiles for highly conductive wearable electronics, electrochemical sensors, catalyst, antibacterial activity and detection of heavy metal ions.

Haydale has announced that Bolflex has purchased 80 kg of its functionalized nano-enhanced rubber masterbatch for use in its premium soles range for shoe production. This follows Haydale recently increasing the elastomer capability of its functionalized nano-enhanced rubber masterbatch.

Haydale's products are incorporated into the styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) compound offering increased tear strength, abrasion resistance, flex resistance, slip resistance and coefficient of friction - all essential properties for footwear.

Researchers at Uppsala University, in collaboration with Swedish graphene materials company Graphmatech, have reported a potential breakthrough in the printability of copper for laser additive manufacturing (AM), significantly lowering the reflectivity of copper powder to achieve more dense printed parts.

Copper powder was coated using Graphmatech’s patented graphene technology. Credit: Simon Tidén / Uppsala University

Additive manufacturing of metals can help produce customized and complex designs on demand and offer more sustainable manufacturing with reduced waste and lower material requirements. However, some metals, including pure copper, have proven a challenge due to their high reflectivity. At the wavelengths commonly used in laser powder bed fusion (the dominant technology in metal AM), only a small part of the energy is absorbed by the material, resulting in low density printed parts. This is what the team set out to address.

China Carbon Graphite Group, Chinese manufacturer of graphene and graphite-based products, has announced that together with the research and development team of its subsidiary, Royal Elite New Energy Science and Technology ("Roycarbon"), the company is developing a new silicon graphene nanocomposite product for next-gen lithium-ion batteries.

This upcoming product is expected to replace the current anode material and would provide improvements in electrochemical performance for the latest EV and mobile device batteries.

Our friend Dr. Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, a well respected graphene market analyst, is launching a new service called TechBlick that is a subscription-based online and all-year round event focused on advanced materials such as graphene, 2D materials, CNTs, boron nitrides, QDs, and more.

Graphene-Info partnered with TechBlick, to provide our readers an exclusive 25% discount on the TechBlick subscription. We took advantage of this launch to discuss the graphene market and industry with Dr. Ghaffarzadeh and also discuss the new service.

Hello Kasha. How do you see the graphene market shaping up in 2021?

I have closely followed and examined the graphene industry for a full decade. The landscape has certainly changed. Many companies have come and gone, and many once considered revolutionary applications are now ruled out, but overall, the industry is now at a tipping point.

We think 2021/2022 will be a turning point, setting the industry on its growth path, despite the delays caused these past 12 months due to Covid. For some, these delays have been painful as projects were pushed back or partners or customers dropped graphene to focus on other core areas. Many undershot their growth expectations, and some had difficult cash flow situations.

Orbex, a UK-based private, low-cost orbital launch services company, recently reported that it has secured $24 million in a funding round led by BGF (London) and Octopus Ventures (London). At the beginning of 2020, Orbex developed what it calls an "advanced, low carbon, high performance micro-launch" rocket called "Orbex Prime".

The new investments secure the roadmap to the first launch of Orbex’s vertical launch vehicle, Orbex Prime, from the Space Hub Sutherland spaceport in Scotland. Incorporating a wide range of advanced materials for its development, the launch vehicle boasts a 3D-printed rocket engine manufactured in a single piece without joins in partnership with additive manufacturer SLM Solutions (Lübeck, Germany). The vehicle is also built out of graphene-enhanced carbon fiber composites for the main structures and tanks.

A couple of months ago UK-based SpaceBlue launched a graphene-enhanced flooring product called SpaceMat. The company sent us a floor mat for review here at Graphene-Info.

Reviewing a floor mat isn't easy - there's not much to do with it, so we decided to use it in our home for a few months - and let nature and our family of six (plus a husky) do its thing. One of the promises of the SpaceMat is its enhanced durability, and we definitely put that to the test.

Last month MSI revealed that it is utilizing graphene composites in its RTX 3000 series GPUs. The new graphic cards are now shipping globally (the cost in the US is $1,699).

MSI uses a graphene composite material as the backplate of the GPU, which is traditionally made of plastic. MSI says that the graphene composite is 4X stronger than its previous plastic backplate, and offers much higher (20X) heat dissipation performance.