Graphene composites: introduction and market status - Page 31

Zenyatta Ventures, a Canadian graphite explorer, has formed a wholly owned European subsidiary company named ZEN-tech Materials to focus on the development and commercialization activities of graphene applications and the allocation of any associated intellectual property and worldwide licensing.

Zenyatta stated that the formation of ZEN-tech is a strategic move that will provide it with a way to capture value and advance graphene application development separate from the mineral development business. Zenyatta will continue to focus on advancing the Albany graphite deposit towards production and will supply highly crystalline, purified graphite to ZEN-tech, academics and end users.

First Graphite, the Australia-based graphite miner and graphene producer, recently announced that it has become a Tier 1 partner to the Australian Research Council Research Hub for Graphene Enabled Industry Transformation (ARC Graphene Research Hub).

The ARC Graphene Research HUB aims to provide knowledge, innovative research and commercial development of graphene technologies across broad areas. Under the Terms of the ARC Hub agreement FGR will focus on the areas of fire retardants, where the Company already has global licence to exploit the technology, development of conductive graphene coatings and development of graphene polymer composites.

Graphenea recently announced the opening of a new graphene oxide (GO) pilot plant with 1 tonne per annum production capacity. The new plant is meant to significantly increase production capacity for Graphenea (which is already producing GO dispersions, powders, and films), while also allowing for higher quality and batch-to-batch reproducibility. The plant reportedly houses in-line quality control of each individual batch.

Graphenea stated that although the production volume is large, the new plant can accommodate custom requirements regarding flake size, oxygen levels, and other specifications. Orders for multi-kilogram quantities will be processed with short delivery times. The production capacity is multiplied by 20 times compared to capabilities before the pilot plant, allowing for development and industrial scale supplies.

Group NanoXplore has recently announced plans to become a public company, with a business strategy of acquiring companies in order to introduce graphene to the products. NanoXplore says it is on track to offer graphene at $10/kg. We recently discussed this goal with the company’s CEO, Dr. Soroush Nazarpour.

Dr. Soroush explains that at the simplest level, commercialization of graphene requires either developing new applications and products, or replacing existing products. There are many examples of graphene companies pursuing each of these approaches. NanoXplore is one company targeting existing products. They plan to dramatically reduce the price of graphene so that it can compete with carbon black.

Researchers at the India Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, have developed a new graphene, silver and pyyrole nanocomposite material suitable for making supercapacitors.

The nanomaterial was made of a graphene sheet onto which silver nanoparticles, each about 15-20 nanometers wide, had been embedded uniformly. The material was shown to have a high specific capacitance of 472 farad per gram at a current density of 0.5 amperes per gram. It could retain 95% of its capacitance after 1,000 consecutive charge-discharge cycles.

An international group of researchers from Saudi Arabia, China and the US have developed a graphene-bacterial cellulose nanofiber (GC/BCN) hybrid sensor to detect alcohol (ethanol) with great efficiency. The sensor was described as flexible, transparent, highly sensitive and with an excellent alcohol recognition performance. Electrical tests in different liquid environments were performed, with remarkable results.

The researchers created a composite thin film composed of graphene and bacterial cellulose nanofibers. In this material, the bacterial cellulose nanofibres act as the host and the graphene as the filler material. Due to its excellent conductive properties, it was reported that graphene does not require the addition of a conductive filler material, unlike many composites. The Researchers constructed the composite using a combination of wet chemical, blending, sonication (Cole-Parmer), centrifugal (Centrifuge 5810, Eppendorf), dialysis and sputtering (Equipment Support Co) methods.

Innovate UK's (London, UK) Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) has launched a Graphene Special Interest Group that is focused, in part, on commercialization of graphene in composite materials applications.

The purpose of the special interest group is to provide a forum through which graphene suppliers can connect with composites fabricators to work together to integrate graphene into products. There are 80 companies in the Graphene Special Interest Group, a number that will hopefully to grow to 200-250.

A team of researchers from Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has developed sensors which can be sprayed directly onto flat or curved surfaces. The sensors, made from a hybrid of carbon black (CB), graphene, other conductive nano-scale particles, and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), can be networked to extract rich real-time information on the health status of the structure being monitored.

The technology includes a sensor network with a number of the sprayed nanocomposite sensors and an ultrasound actuator to actively detect the health condition of the structure to which they are fixed. When the ultrasound actuator emits guided ultrasonic waves (GUWs), the sensors will receive and measure the waves. If damage is detected, such as a crack in the structure, propagation of GUWs will be interfered by the damage, leading to the wave scattering phenomena to be captured by the sensor network. The damage can then be characterised quantitatively and accurately.

U.S-based Alliance Rubber recently signed an agreement with University of Sussex to study how graphene could be used in rubber products. Under the agreement, Alliance Rubber will sponsor research work exclusively on graphene projects for three years.

Potential applications the company plans to investigate include a rubber band that fits around credit and debit cards with RFID chips and prevents hackers from remotely accessing information stored on the chips, a rubber band around produce that changes color when the produce reaches a set temperature or after a certain amount of time passes after harvest, and a rubber band that acts as a bar code on produce in grocery stores.

A few days ago Canada-based Group NanoXplore announced that it is will merge with Graniz Modal to become a public company that trades in the Canadian stock exchange. NanoXPlore's CEO and President, Dr. Soroush Nazarpour, was kind enough to answer a few questions we had regarding this IPO and NanoXplore's business.

Q: Group NanoXplore is set to become a public company soon, following the merger with Graniz Modal. Can you detail the effect this will have on NanoXplore?