Graphene has moved swiftly from the research laboratory to the marketplace, driven by demand from aerospace, automotive, coatings, electronics, energy storage, coatings and paints, communications, sensor, solar, oil, and lubricant sectors.
Graphene’s properties are undisputed; however industry requires high quality graphene with low defects, low cost and is scalable for mass manufacturing, issues which have yet to be fully resolved. It is currently the most investigated material in physics and nanoscience and the exceptional electron and thermal transport, mechanical properties, barrier properties and high specific surface area of graphene and combinations thereof make it a potentially disruptive technology across a raft of industries. Graphene production has increased greatly in the last 18 months. In 2009, the total production output of various types of graphene was approximately 12 tons. In 2011, production estimates are 23.4 tons.
Graphene sector main producers
Angstron Materials, Vorbeck Materials and XG Sciences are the main graphene producer’s worldwide, all using relatively inexpensive, simple and low-energy production techniques. Near-term applications for graphene are mainly in coatings, composites and electrodes. Academic and industrial research is a significant market for graphene. In May 2012, XG Sciences moved into a new production facility which will increase their production capacity from 5 to 80 tons per year, reducing price to $40-$50 per kilogram. Haydale and Graphene Technologies are also scaling up to multi-ton capacities. Annual roduction capacities are approximately as follows:
– Angstron Materials: 10 tons-25 tons (3 tons in 2009). The company is expanding their 22,000 sq. foot facility and distribution network, and plan to produce 100-300 tons in 2012.
– Durham Graphene Science: Production capacity of 1-5 Kg
– Graphene Devices Ltd.: 50 Kg
– Graphene Industries Ltd.: <1Kg
– Graphenea: 25 Kg
– Graphene Square: 500 Kg
– Nanointegris: 10 Kg
– Quantum Materials Corp: 40 Kg/day
– Vorbeck Materials Corporation: 10-20 tons at present but
scaling up to 100 tons per year
– XG Sciences, Inc.: 5 tons (Increasing 2012-2013 to 80 tons per year)
– Xiamen Knano Graphene Technology Co., Ltd: Approximately 50 tons/year
– Xolve: 500 Kg.
Big business
There are a number of multinationals with activities in graphene including Intel and IBM (data storage and computing), Dow Chemicals, Dupont and BASF, and 3M and Samsung (consumer electronics). BASF has formed a partnership with Vorbeck to jointly develop products. Dow is still relatively non-committal despite ongoing research in cable-shielding applications. Samsung has recently demonstrated graphene for smartphone applications. The company has demonstrated flexible AMOLED screens 4.5 inches across and just 0.3mm thick. Samsung plans to introduce the screens in the second half of 2013. LG Electronics is also developing graphene enabled flexible screens.
Figure 1: Samsung flexible smartphone screen.
Electronics
The exceptional electronic properties of graphene, resulting in carrier mobilities as large as several thousands of cm²/Vs, make it a candidate for filling the technology bottleneck for beyond-CMOS nanoelectronics research. The current carrying capability of graphene is orders of magnitude higher than that of metals. Additionally, graphene is CMOS compatible and can be handled by standard planar technology, which should result in highest integration of device density in the medium run. Graphene devices are also believed to work at much lower supply voltages and should therefore result in lower power consumption. Therefore graphene has the potential to increase computing performance, functionality and communication speed far beyond the expected limits of conventional CMOS technology. Other novel functionalities in graphene devices include sensing capability, electro-mechanical effects (e.g. resonators) and spintronics effects. Graphene also shows an extraordinary mechanical strength; its rigidity is nearly comparable with that of diamond.
Applications
Applications are coming onto the market for polymer composites and EMI shielding coatings. Graphene-based conducting inks are also finding their way into smart cards and radio-frequency identification tags. Graphene based conductive ink packaging products will be hitting the shelves in 2013.
Potential applications as reinforcing filler for composite materials are currently under investigation in the automotive and aerospace and aviation industries. Graphene is currently employed in additives for plastics, steel, composites and inks, with medium to longer-term applications in batteries, displays, transistors and data storage. The main thrust for this is the materials extraordinary conductivity.
Similar to carbon nanotubes, graphene displays ballistic electron conduction. Applications that are currently discussed range from a usage of graphene as conductive strips to high-speed transistors and completely graphene-based electronic circuits. Further fields of future application are in transparent electronics (e. g. in display technology), as base material for spintronics or in heat dissipation making use of the even high thermal conductivity. As they are two-dimensional and have very low aspect ratio (height to length ratio), the entanglement problems faced with rival materials such as carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers and nanoclays do not arise in the use of graphene in polymer nanocomposites. Also, since two-dimensional platelets of graphene can slide over each other, it does not increase the viscosity of the resin in the molten state. Apart from their easier incorporation and processing advantages, graphene is much cheaper than carbon nanotubes. Its widespread industrial uptake/application is arguably more realistic, and potential greater than that of carbon nanotubes.
Figure 2: Graphene solar cell.
Recent research
Recently researchers in Denmark have produced graphene-based solar cells that are more flexible, lighter, and have a higher mechanical strength than current technologies; and the University of Texas at Austin have made state-of-the-art flexible graphene field-effect transistors with record current densities and the highest power and conversion gain ever.1
