Graphene Commercialisation – Challenges and Opportunities

More than 60 participants with representatives from the research, manufacturing, investment and government sectors gathered at ACES in the Gong on Wednesday.

The gathering also included Dr Bill (Yan) Qu from the Sixth Element Materials Technology Co. Ltd in China and Dr Aravind Vijayaraghavan from the Graphene Institute, University of Manchester in the UK.

Bill highlighted the enormous level of activity in graphene commercialisation in China. He also emphasized the need to productise graphene to enable commercialisation.  Advances in corrosion protection coatings and in composites containing graphene within Sixth Element were used to highlight the significant advances being made towards commercialisation.

Aravind highlighted the privileged position that graphene enjoys in the R&D world. We still continue to build a critical body of knowledge around our fundamental understanding of graphene e.g. in the world of plasmonics and yet we can realise real world applications even now in fields such as polymer composites. It is perhaps this myriad of opportunities that sometimes confuses the best path way to commercialisation.

The group was treated throughout the day to a scientific smorgasbord with graphene being used to enhance the performance of concrete, create amazing new membrane technologies, in the fabrication of new electrodes for energy storage, as a coating on geo-textiles to enable lead detection and to improve the performance of condoms!

It was noted however, that commercial realisation relies on the identification of appropriate graphite sources and the development of robust, reliable, scalable processing methods to deliver the most appropriate form and composition of graphene for each particular application.

David Officer highlighted the approach taken through the ACES-ANFF partnership to deliver graphene in the form most appropriate to enable fabrication of structures and devices for such applications.

The workshop environment encouraged open discussion about how researchers and industry could work more closely together in this rapidly growing field. Maintaining the conversation, building real collaborative activities no matter how small (sooner rather than later), spending time (working) in each other’s facilities and working together to identify the match between world leading capabilities and global commercial opportunities were practical steps identified.

Inevitably the conversation tuned to the roles of Governments and University organisations. Facilitating rather than regulating the above practical steps would help move things forward.