Description
The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a centre of excellence in the world of graphene research. This month we discovered that they have had a team working on a new process for separating chemical vapour deposition (CVD) graphene from the metal substrate. This is important because while graphene can be made at speeds of metres per minute, separating the graphene from the copper foil is a slow process that frequently causes damage to the single atomic layer of graphene.
The NUS team have developed a rather clever way of reducing the adhesion between the graphene and copper using coronal discharge in a process known as coronal poling. They have not stopped there, and developed a polymer film that can be cast on top of the copper. The corona l poling allows the polymer film to peel away the graphene. Then heating to 135°C allows the graphene to be peeled away from the polymer film.
This is a dry transfer method that is faster than current separation methods, taking just minutes instead of ho urs. They have also automated the process and developed a robotic production line that can easily handle large scale sheets. The process we viewed used A3 sized sheets of graphene coated copper foil and transferred the graphene from these in less than fi ve minutes. The NUS team are now working on a continuous version of this batch process.
Elsewhere in the research, a doctoral thesis in Norway has been exploring graphene enhanced antifouling coatings for ships. They reported that graphene nanocomposites do improve the antifouling properties of epoxy and silicone coatings.
Regular readers will know something that the Norwegian team evidently does not. GIT coatings in Canada have already commercialised graphene enhanced epoxy coatings for ocean going ship s. Two more vessels were announced this week. They are ferries in Finland and Estonia one has just entered dry dock and the other has just left the dock with a new graphene coating on its hull. There are now well over 600 large ships sailing the seas co ated with graphene and the fuel savings are translating into CO 2 emissions savings of over 500 tonnes of CO 2 every day.
You can find out much more about developments in the world of graphene and 2D materials in this packed issue, please do read on…
Adrian Nixon 1st February 2026
