Interviews with graphene market leaders - Page 3

In November 2017, after years of work, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) released its first graphene standard, the ISO/TS 80004-13:2017. The effort was led by the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL).

We recently discussed this interesting and important development with the NPL's Dr. Andrew J. Pollard. Dr. Andrew leads the NPL Surface and Nanoanalysis Group's research into the structural and chemical characterization of graphene and related 2D materials, and he is also a member of the ISO working group 'Measurement and Characterization' within the 'Nanotechnologies' Technical Committee (TC229), and a UK nominated expert for the international graphene standards.

Hello Andy, and thank you for this interview. We know that NPL pioneered the effort in the new ISO standard, can you tell us why do you believe such standards are of vital importance?

As a new material that has spawned an emerging industry, graphene has the potential to improve many of the products we all use every day. However, for industry around the world to be able to develop innovative products with this two-dimensional material, they need to know what the properties actually are of the materials they are using.

Mr. Xu Jiang, president and general manager of China’s XFNano, was kind enough to answer a few questions we had for him regarding XFNano’s graphene materials, technology and business. Mr. Jiang founded XFNano in 2009, and he holds a master’s degree from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

Q: Hello Mr. Jiang, thank you for your time. Can you update us on your graphene production process and facilities?

In 2016, XFNANO put its new production line into operation, which yields an annual production capacity of 50 tons of high-quality graphene powder and 1,000 tons of graphene dispersion. We believe this can meet our customers’ demands for large quantities.

Norway-based CealTech was established in 2012 to commercialize a patented 3D graphene production method. The company recently received its first prototype proprietary industrial-scale Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PE-CVD) graphene production reactor.

We discussed CealTech's technology and business with the company's marketing and sales manager, Michel Eid. Michael holds a Ph.D. in Solid Mechanics from the Ecole Polytechnique in France, and held various roles in engineeing, manufacturing, sustaining, sales, marketing and business development. Michel joined CealTech in January 2017.

Q: Hello Michael. CealTech is commercializing a patented 3D graphene production method. Can you give us some details on the process and the material you are producing?

Our production process is based on David Boyd’s technique as per Nature communications (DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7620), ‘Single-step deposition of high-mobility graphene at reduced temperatures’. In summary, the substrate is directly exposed to a low-pressure, microwave hydrogen plasma containing small amounts of methane as carbon source. During this process, vertical grown graphene flakes nucleate and arrange perpendicularly to the surface of the substrate forming a so-called 3D network of non-agglomerated graphene flakes.

Australia-based technology minerals company, Talga Resources, is actively developing graphene materials and graphene-based applications across many areas, including coatings, batteries, construction materials, composites and more.

Mark Thompson, Talga's managing director, was kind enough to update us on Talga's graphene program and answer a few questions we had.

Q: Thank you for this interview, Mark. Can you quickly update us on your graphite mine operation in Sweden?

Talga has over 20 years of graphite mining potential outlined in economic studies to date and currently extracts intermittently what it needs for scale up and testing purposes. Talga mined approximately 5,000 tonnes of graphite ore during 2015-16 trial mining operations. Further extraction is not required for now but permitting for the future larger scale operations is underway.

Prof. James Tour's research lab in Rice University is one of the leading graphene research groups in the world, with several key technologies first discovered and developed there. Professor Tour is involved with several application areas - from de-icing coating to energy storage and quantum dots production. Prof. Tour was kind enough to share his time and update us on the latest research and commercialization efforts at his lab.

The Tour group is now commercializing two of its key technologies. First up is the laser-induced graphene (or LiG), which was reported first in 2014. This is a process in which graphene is formed on a flexible polyimide film using a room-temperature laser-based process. It is possible to pattern this graphene to create devices and as it is formed on a flexible film this easily enables flexible electronics applications.

Ionic Industries is an Australia-based graphene developer that was spun-off from Strategic Energy Resources (SER still holds 20% in Ionic) in 2015. Ionic Developed a proprietary Graphene Oxide production process and is developing GO-based materials and applications.

Simon Savage, Ionic's Managing Director, was kind enough to discuss the company's technology and the status of Ionic's GO applications.

San Diego-based Nanomedical Diagnostics, established in late 2013 to develop cutting-edge diagnostics equipment, recently started shipping its graphene-based sensors and the AGILE R100 system which allows for real-time detection of small molecules - with no lower size limit. Nanomedical's graphene-based sensors enable faster sample processing, greater accuracy, portability and cost savings.

The company's CEO, Ross Bundy, was kind enough to explain the company's technology and business to us.

Last month we asked several graphene experts about their thoughts on the commercial potential of CVD as a graphene production process. This interesting discussion led to my talk with Jesus de la Fuente, Graphenea's Founder & CEO.

Graphenea is one of the world's leaders in CVD graphene, and Jesus kindly agreed to update us on his thoughts on CVD and the recent advances made at Graphenea.

The Sixth Element Materials Technology is a Chengzhou, China based company that develops and produces graphene and graphene oxide materials. The company recently opened a sales office in Europe, and appointed Bernhard Münzing as sales director.

Bernhard was kind enough to participate in an interview with graphene-info. Bernhard is an industrial engineer with a focus on chemistry, who has held different positions in sales, materials management, marketing and business development in big as well as medium sized chemical companies.

Q: We understand that The Sixth Element (T6E) currently produces graphene flakes and graphene oxide, in a 100 ton/year plant in Chengzhou. Is that correct? Can you tell us anything regarding the current production plant?

Montreal-based graphene producer and developer Group NanoXplore recently announced some interesting and promising developments. We discuss the company's recent advances with the company's CEO and President, Dr. Soroush Nazarpour.

Hello Dr. Soroush. We know NanoXplore as a graphene producer but recently we hear that the company has been bringing graphene to the plastic industry. Why have you chosen to focus on this market?

NanoXplore is manufacturing graphene-enhanced polymers in response to the customer need for plastics with better electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties. Results from compounding NanoXplore’s graphene with Polyethylene, for example, have shown 10 orders of magnitude increase in electrical conductivity, 5 orders increase in thermal conductivity and a 30% increase in mechanical yield strength.