Zen Graphene

Zentek has announced a collaboration with Pattern Energy Group to optimize, test and validate Zentek’s icephobic coating for the wind turbine industry. The partnership is being supported financially by both the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (“NSERC”) and PRIMA Quebec - Advanced Materials Moving Forward.

Pattern Energy develops, constructs, owns, and operates wind turbines and understands the lost efficiency and potential damage to the wind turbine itself and its surroundings that comes from ice accretion on these structures.

Following its September 2022 announcement on testing of icephobic coating technology, Zentek has now reported successful drone testing, where thrust was maintained under calibrated icing conditions of freezing drizzle and freezing rain in an outdoor, real-world environment. The drone with Zentek's icephobic coating applied to the propeller blades hovered under the outdoor icing rig and, on all tests conducted, maintained flight until the end of the battery life of the drone. The same drone with uncoated propeller blades rapidly lost the ability to maintain flight, according to the Company.

Zentek shared that the coating is a functionalized graphene oxide augmented elastomer.

Zentek recently announced the start of a 4-year, CAD$1,600,000 (around USD$1,172,000) research project in collaboration with Professors Mohini Sain and Ning Yan from the University of Toronto (“U of T”) and Ford Powertrain Engineering Research and Development Centre (“PERDC”).

Funding for the project includes CAD$1.2 million (around USD$879,000) from the Mitacs Accelerate program. Prof. Sain is the Endowed Ford Motor Canada Chair in Sustainable Materials where he is active in the field of light energy storage including cell chemistry and renewable fuel battery development at PERDC, and Prof. Yan is the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Bioproducts. Collaborating with the PERDC and testing at this facility is essential to demonstrate battery advances at a scale suitable for the automotive industry. 

Zentek recently announced the successful completion of sand erosion testing at the National Research Council (“NRC”) in Ottawa and rain erosion testing at the Anti-icing Materials International Laboratory (“AMIL”) in Quebec on Zentek’s patent-pending Icephobic Coatings. These results were said to demonstrate that the company’s icephobic technology is durable in adverse conditions for both wind turbine and drone industries, where Zentek is currently maintaining its focus.

“We are very happy with both the performance and durability test results for our icephobic coating and look forward to continued testing and demonstration of our technology,” said Greg Fenton, CEO of Zentek. “Ice accretion is a significant problem in the drone and wind turbine industries with few robust solutions currently available. We believe our patent-pending technology may be a new innovative approach to addressing a significant global need and look forward to continued discussions with drone and wind turbine market participants who see value in potentially more effective icephobic technologies.”

Zentek recently announced it has entered into a Manufacturing and Supply Agreement with Viva Healthcare Packaging (Canada) Ltd. ("VMedCare”) to manufacture and sell surgical masks enhanced with Zentek’s proprietary ZenGUARD™ antimicrobial coating. During the pandemic, VMedCare became one of the leaders in surgical mask manufacturing in Canada with production of between 15 and 20 million units per month. The partnership between Zentek and VMedCare will create a fully “Made in Canada” source of ZenGUARD™-enhanced masks for the Canadian market.

Under the Agreement, Zentek will provide ZenGUARD™-coated spunbond material to VMedCare, who will be responsible for manufacturing and packaging the ZenGUARD™ surgical masks. Zentek and VMedCare’s combined sales teams will work together to secure sales of the ZenGUARD™-enhanced surgical masks.

Zentek has announced that it will be opening its industrial scale ZenGUARD antimicrobial production facility in Guelph, Ontario on June 17th, 2022. This facility is claimed by Zentek to be one of the largest nanomaterials-based manufacturing facilities in the world.

The opening of this facility is an important milestone for our company as it represents our successful journey from the lab, through regulatory and now to industrial commercialization. I would like to personally thank all our employees and vendor partners who put in considerable time and effort to make this happen, said Greg Fenton, CEO of Zentek. We’re now ready to begin meeting the growing interest and demand for our ZenGUARD coating.

Zentek has announced that McMaster University has received two Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Grants related to the aptamer-based rapid detection technology exclusively licensed by Zentek, pursuant to its license agreement with McMaster: The Alliance Missions Grant for the amount of CAD$1,000,000 (around USD$782,000) and an Idea to Innovation (I2I) Grant for the amount of CAD$350,000 (around USD$274,000) of which Zentek will make a CAD$140,000 (around USD$109,000) contribution. Both of these awards are the maximum awarded under each respective grant program, with disbursements delivered over the next two years.

The research team at McMaster University has achieved significant milestones for the rapid diagnostic platform including the creation of a new ‘universal’ aptamer with a high binding affinity to all known Covid variants, said Greg Fenton, CEO of Zentek. Zentek is proud to continue working with the global-leading research team at McMaster University, with significant financial support from NSERC, which is a great endorsement of our technology and goal of commercialization.

Zentek has announced it has signed a definitive supply agreement with EkoMed Global, a globally integrated manufacturer and distributor of personal protective equipment (PPE), according to which Zentek will sell quantities of its proprietary ZenGUARD coating to EkoMed for use on EkoMed’s surgical masks and potentially other PPE in the future. The agreement also stipulates that Zentek will purchase surgical masks manufactured by EkoMed, to be treated with ZenGUARD coating and resold by Zentek.

This agreement solidifies our relationship with an established and highly competitive player in the PPE space and a potential future innovation partner; both key elements of our global ZenGUARD sales strategy, said Greg Fenton, CEO of Zentek. As we seek to gain access to new markets, reliable, high-capacity and high-quality production along with additional sales channels for our patent-pending ZenGUARD technology are crucial. We believe this agreement will establish a solid foundation for Zentek to expand access to ZenGUARD globally. As important, we look forward to working with the EkoMed team to explore incorporating ZenGUARD into other PPE products currently being manufacturing and commercialized by EkoMed.

Zentek has announced the patent-pending development of a graphene-wrapped silicon anode material, developed along with Prof. Michael Pope, an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo, and in collaboration Dr. Marianna Uceda and Dr. Zimin She.

Zentek’s CEO, Greg Fenton, commented: We are very pleased to support Dr. Pope and his group at the University of Waterloo. Their innovation has the potential to improve the current lithium-ion battery by upgrading graphite to this graphene-wrapped silicon anode. Not only were the researchers able to demonstrate good performance with laboratory-scale half-cells, the performance was also validated with commercial lithium iron phosphate cathodes suggesting they could be a drop-in solution for enhancing already available battery technologies. We look forward to continuing our support of their research and development to potentially bring this technology to market. The company has begun discussions with a potential industry partner.

Zentek has announced that it has entered into a binding letter of intent with GMAF Circular Medico ApS (GMAF) to produce and sell ZENGuard-enhanced GMAF trademarked recyclable surgical masks (Circular PPE).

Zentek’s Medical Device Establishment License (MDEL) allows the Company to work with other manufacturers and distributors around the world to sell Class I PPE products in the Canadian market. Pursuant to the terms of the LOI, ZEN and GMAF have agreed to negotiate a definitive agreement to bring Circular PPETM coated with ZENGuard to the Canadian market while also evaluating regulatory requirements in other target markets. Commercial sales of Circular PPETM with ZENGuard outside of Canada will be subject to applicable regulatory approvals.