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Nixene Journal Volume 9 Issue 5 Special Feature 1
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Vol 6 Issue 2
A graphene toaster was demonstrated for the first time at the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas by Korean company Graphene Square. This may not sound like a world changing invention, but it is something worth paying attention to because this is a rare application for chemical vapour deposition (CVD) graphene in a consumer electronics device. Until now, CVD graphene has been used in very small pieces in sensors. This toaster has a piece of CVD graphene on the top and bottom glass panels making a transparent infrared grill. The graphene is made at a scale of 200mm x 150mm and this tells us a that the company has a viable CVD roll to roll process. The process can make graphene at this scale and also provides the capability to separate the graphene from the forming substrate to other surfaces, in this case glass. The next step is to do this commercially. Graphene Square admits this is still at least a year away. This is still impressive progress and tells us that the industrial manufacture of CVD graphene is developing quickly. CVD graphene is also in the news this month. British company Paragraf announced through Queen Mary University, London, that they can create graphene at wafer scale, and this could be a replacement for indium tin oxide (ITO). This was picked up by technology blogs around the world, and graphene manufacturer Versarien felt obliged to disclose it is working on a similar project with a graphene manufacturer in Korea. These announcements about CVD graphene touchscreens sound impressive. However, as far as we can tell from the current state of the art, the economic and technical cases are not sufficiently proven to convince us we will see this technology in the immediate future. The term ‘bottom-up graphene’ used to refer to CVD graphene assembled atom by atom. Graphene powder manufacturing has been evolving rapidly over the last few years and can now be made by atomic assembly methods too. We have summarised the various methods in our special feature. We also look at the implications for competitive activity, as these new manufacturing methods meet the new market dynamics driving the sustainability agenda. While we cannot state which individual companies will achieve success, we can make some predictions about the characteristics successful graphene powder manufacturers will need to have. We hope you agree this makes for fascinating reading along with the rest of the compelling content this issue. Adrian Nixon, 1st February 2022£45.00 View product -
Vol 6 Issue 7
Evidence is mounting in support of the low toxicity of graphene. The Swiss federal research laboratories have added to the body of evidence this month (p.16). They explored the effects of dusts generated by graphene enhanced polymers when they are abraded and found no toxic effects and minor respiratory inflammation. This means the dusts created during the recycling process of graphene enhanced polymer composites (in this case, nylon PA6) represent a low health hazard. As a regular reader, you will know that graphene is being trialled as an additive to enhance the life of asphalt roads. In the UK Kent County Council and the University of Nottingham have just released data from the field trials on roads in the county (p.33). They found that graphene: • Extends the surface lifetime by approximately 2.5 times to last up to 25 years • Over 65-year asset life, a carbon saving of 23kg CO2/m2 of road surface • Created a 32% reduction in cost over the lifetime of the asset Graphene applications supported by data get more of our attention. GMG has commissioned its graphene enhanced battery plant in Australia. These batteries have a lower energy density than lithium ion and nickel metal batteries. This might not sound important, but aluminium and graphene are common materials that can be made with low environmental impact when compared with lithium, cobalt & nickel. A new electric vehicle has been launched this month. UK hypercar manufacturer has presented its Apricale hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (HFCEV). The car has a top speed of over 300km/hr and a range over 500km. Graphene enhanced polymer composites are used to make the hydrogen fuel tank. The car does need batteries but because these are for supporting power it needs much less than a normal EV. This raises an interesting possibility, could lower energy density battery technology such as aluminium ion be used in conjunction with fuel cell technology to make better, sustainable electric vehicles? All these developments use graphene powders. Meanwhile large area sheet CVD graphene makes steady progress. A team at the University of Texas has made a ‘graphene tattoo’ sensor that can be applied to the skin to continuously monitor blood pressure. Using graphene means there is no inflammatory response from the wearer, and the sensor provides the highest sensitivity rating. Continuing the CVD theme, we interview the CEO of one of the leading graphene manufacturing companies, Jeff Draa provides insight into how he makes his CVD graphene and how they monitored customers to help them focus on the applications most likely to drive commercial success. You can find out about all this and more in this fascinating issue, dear reader please read on… Adrian Nixon 1st July 2022£45.00 View product -
Vol 6 Issue 9
Andre Geim’s work appears twice in this issue. He has been working with researchers in China and developed a straightforward method of recovering metallic gold from e-waste. This starts with an e-waste liquid stream where the precious metals have been dissolved in acid. Reduced graphene oxide powder (rGO) is mixed with this waste stream. rGO is composed of nanoplates with oxygen containing groups around the edges and a graphene surface in the middle. The groups round the edge help the nanoplate mix with the water in the waste and the graphene surface attracts and reduces the gold ions in solution to solid gold metal. It is surprisingly straightforward. The process is also extremely efficient, recovering nearly 100% of the gold even when vanishingly small amounts of gold is present. Andre was also interviewed by Forbes magazine this month. He was asked how he manages to be so innovative when others are less so. He replied that having a wide range of interests was a key part of his success: “Too many people move from scientific cradle to scientific coffin without deviation” …and went on to say: “You have to enrich yourself, to improve your chances to find something new and interesting that other people didn't find before” Not only a recipe for success in science but a good philosophy for making our own luck for the rest of us too. Elsewhere in this issue, articles cover topics such as the renewed investor interest in graphene companies. Over £11million has been invested in graphene companies this month. Researchers have turned graphene into diamond, and others have been discovering more about the electrical properties of twisted layer graphene. In Malaysia, the traditional industry of natural rubber harvesting is exploring creating high altitude balloons made with graphene enhanced rubber to launch satellites into low earth orbit. Quite a leap forward. Read on and enrich yourselves… Adrian Nixon 1st September 2022£45.00 View product -
Vol 5 Issue 3
Graphene and 2D materials are still creating scientific progress and the pace is if anything speeding up. You may recall from 2018 that MIT discovered twisted bilayer graphene displayed superconductivity. Andre Geim said this was a genuine surprise when we interviewed him at the Graphene industry showcase event (Vol 4 Iss1 p.8). Well, the MIT team have been exploring this field of twistronics and have now found that using trilayer twisted graphene creates more robust superconductivity at slightly higher temperatures. This points the researchers towards more layers of graphene. Maybe people will start to realise multilayer sheet graphene is much more than graphite. In another development, liquid mercury has been turned into a solid by graphene and the resulting composite has promise for making a new generation of catalysts that could replace more expensive noble metals such as platinum and gold. This finding might also create the possibility to remove liquid mercury contamination from oil and gas processing. Sparc technologies in Australia has some profile this month. They have developed a functionalised graphene with the University of Adelaide. This is showing promise for land remediation and also early work is showing it has some value adsorbing precious metals from mining waste. Sustainability applications like these attract our attention, especially if followed by commercial success. Swedish company 2D fab is working on a project with Swedish research institutes to commercialise a new process for making hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) using graphene paper electrodes. H2O2 is an important industrial product used for bleaching and is an important ingredient in many consumer products. The current process for making H2O2 is energy intensive and creates waste. This new process promises to be lower energy without waste and is more environmentally sustainable. The project should complete by April 2023. Keeping the sustainability theme this month, we also see that the GEIC has started to engage with graphene enhanced concrete, This is really good news. Regular readers will know that we believe graphene in concrete will eventually become the biggest application because it has the potential to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by 2% with very little impact on our lifestyles. A message that perhaps might reach the ears of those attending the UN Climate Chance conference later this year. As usual there is so much more to explore in this issue, including two special features by Debbie Nelson that are well worth reading. Adrian Nixon, 1st March 2021£45.00 View product
