Graphene CVD sheets - updates and market status - Page 16

CVD Equipment developed a new method to produce large-size high-quality CVD graphene in increased quantity and at a lower cost. The company filed provisional patents covering the technology.

The company says they actually developed "classes of production solutions" that can be tailored for different graphene applications. The company plans to ship new CVD systems that use this technology (called EasyTube) in Q2 2014. They are also developing more platforms. 

Researchers from Northwestern University and Argonne National Laboratory demonstrating the first growth of graphene on a single-crystal silver substrate. This method could be used to advance graphene-based optical devices (as silver is a widely used material to enhance optical properties) and enable the interfacing of graphene with other two-dimensional materials.

Silver substrates are chemically inert and have a relatively low melting point, which means it is difficult to use CVD technologies. The researchers used a graphite carbon source and deposited atomic carbon (rather than a carbon-based molecular precursor) onto the silver substrate. This allowed them to use low temperature and this process does not need a chemically active surface.

Researchers from Taiwan's National Cheng Kung University developed a new low-cost and scalable method to pattern graphene on 3D surfaces. This could enable the use of graphene conductors on flexible or curved substrates. Researchers from Notherwestern University now seek to extend this work by producing complete circuits on curved surfaces.

The method starts by ink-jet printing a layer of aluminum chloride on a copper foil. This pattern is used as a template for graphene CVD growth. In the next step, a polymer membrane is added which supports the graphene when the aluminum chloride is removed. The graphene can be transferred to the desired surface.

UK's Durham Graphene Science announced plans to go public, and raise up to £10 million (about $16 million) on the UK's AIM stock exchange. The company is also changing its name to Applied Graphene Materials (AGM). They will use the funds to increase production capacity and accelerate commercial opportunities with partners. If successful, AGM will be the world's first pure-graphene company to go public. This will be one interesting IPO to watch!

AGM says that trading is expected to begin next month. The company hopes to achieve a market value of £25 million ($40 million). The company, a spin-off from Durham University, developed a unique and scalable bottom-up CVD approach to synthesize graphene. Their current annual production capacity is one tonne of graphene (I'm assuming these are graphene flakes). The company will upgrade its plant to eight ton capacity (this will take about 18 months).

Bluestone Global Tech announced a new groundbreaking product today, the world's first graphene based Field Effect Transistor. BGT's Grat-FET is a wafer with 9 different GFET chips (or FET arrays), each with 64 FETs. Grat-FET is aimed towards research and development work and not for commercial production.

BGT's GFETs are fabricated (using CVD) on a silicon wafer covered with a SiO₂ layer. The high mobility (2000 cm²/Vs or more) graphene is used as the transistor channel. Each transistor consists of three terminals: source and drain metal electrodes and a global back gate.

Researchers from Rice University have discovered that hexagonal Boron Nitride (h-BN, which has a similar structure to graphene and is sometimes referred to as "white graphene") may be used as a very effective anti-rust metal coating that can prevent the metal from oxidizing at very high temperatures (up to 1,100 degrees Celsius). Even while layer of h-BN may be enough to be used as a protective coating.

The researchers made small sheets of h-BN on nickel foil using CVD. They say that the process should be scalable for industrial production. The researchers also tested growing h-BN on graphene, and transferring h-BN sheets to copper and steel.

Last week we reported that Graphene Frontiers has been awarded a $744,600 grant from the NSF to develop and scale up their roll-to-roll graphene production. After discussing this with Graphene Frontier's CEO Michael D. Patterson, we have some more information about the company's technology and its business.

Graphene Frontier's technology was developed at the University of Pennsylvania. It is called Atmospheric Pressure CVD, or APCVD. This roll-to-roll process does not need a vacuum so it works in room pressure. The equipment required is smaller, faster and cheaper compared to CVD and this means that the manufacturing will be cost effective.

Grafen Chemical Industries announced a new strategic alliance with Japan's Microphase to develop and commercialize CVD systems suitable for carbon nanotube (CNT) and graphene advanced research.

The partners aim is to offer compact and affordable CVD units for researchers that will enable efficient and reliable carbon nanomaterial synthesis. Towards this goal, Microphase will contribute its comprehensive CVD system product pipeline and know-how and Grafen will contribute its nanosystems expertise for specific research purposes in the region of Middle East, East Europe and Turkey.

Researchers from japan's Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) institute developed a new highly reliable interconnect that features low-resistivity, using multi-layer graphene. They say that this interconnect achieved a resistivity similar to copper (this was achieved by intercalating iron-chloride molecules between the graphene layers. This interconnect may be used to interconnect large-scale integrated circuits (LSIs) to reduce energy consumption.

The researchers used CVD using a cobalt epitaxial film as a catalyst to create the multi-layer graphene. They say that their multi-layer graphene has a structure and electrical properties similar to those of graphene obtained from crystalline graphite, but is i more tolerant than copper to high current densities.

Researchers from Korea's KAIST institute used graphene to make metals hundreds of times stronger. The researchers developed a composite graphene-copper material that is 500 times stronger than pure copper and a graphene-nickel one that is 180 times stronger than nickel.

The researchers created a layered structure of graphene and metal. Using CVD they grew a single graphene layer on a metal substrate and then deposited the second metal layer on top. This is the first time such a design has been produced using a single graphene sheet. The researchers explain that the graphene blocks the dislocations and cracks from external damage to travel into the material.