David Savastano, Editor11.07.14
There is much research and discussion about the potential for graphene in many industries. A one-atom thick layer of graphite that is formed in a hexagonal lattice, graphene offers superior performance properties, including excellent electron mobility and conductivity, flexibility and high opacity. Graphene is also noted for its amazing strength, which is equal to 100 times the strength of steel at the same thickness.
Considering these properties, it is no surprise that printed electronics researchers and manufacturers are interested in what graphene can do for them. Graphene could play a role in integrated circuitry, transistors and printed electronics, leading to transparent, bendable transistors.
Researchers are currently studying the potential of commercializing graphene. There are new facilities opening – the Cambridge Graphene Centre (CGC) comes to mind – as well as research grants. There are also plenty of innovative companies that are working in the graphene space.
One such company is Graphenea. Headquartered in San Sebastian, Spain, Graphenea produces graphene in powder form and CVD graphene in film form.
“Graphenea has developed high quality, cost competitive and industrial scalable graphene production processes. Graphenea is a reliable graphene producer for research and industrial applications of graphene materials,” said Graphenea CEO Jesus de la Fuente. “We invest heavily in R&D to improve our production process and increase quality. Graphene is not just one material in a family of new materials. Each customer or each application needs a specific graphene material. Graphenea works together with industrial partners to develop custom materials for their applications. Graphenea produces graphene in powder form and CVD graphene in film form.
J. Patrick Frantz of Cambridge Graphene Platform Ltd. (CGP), Cambridge, UK, said that CGP utilizes pristine graphene for its products.
“CGP’s unique contribution to the field of graphene is the development of a scalable process to produce pristine graphene dispersions/inks with a very high monolayer content,” Frantz noted. “There are many other varieties of graphene inks on the market, but most of these usually contain functionalized graphene (e.g. graphene oxide) and are composed of graphene nanoplatelets consisting of many layers. Our dispersions and inks retain the properties of pure graphene.”
Dr. Xuesong (Bruce) Li, co-founder and vice president, advanced materials for Bluestone Global Tech, Ltd. (BGT), Wappingers Falls, NY, said that BGT has pioneered the field of graphene production and graphene applications in electronic, energy generation and saving applications.
“BGT developed a proprietary technique for mass production of graphene film,” Dr. Li said. “One of the major issues associated with CVD graphene is the need to etch copper substrate after graphene growth, which is an expensive process and generates lots of chemical waste. The new technique developed by BGT detaches CVD graphene from its metal substrate in an electrochemical way without consuming the substrate, and thus reduces cost, chemical consumption and environmental impact. With this technique, high quality graphene films have been produced and used for optoelectronics and electronics.
“In addition to the production of high-quality CVD graphene materials, BGT has developed processes that could integrate graphene with semiconductor components for future high-speed electronics and communication applications, which utilize the unique property of graphene in THz carrier propagation speed,” Dr. Li noted. “In particular, BGT has launched the first graphene FET (field-effect transistor ) product in the market.
“In the field of energy storage, BGT created a graphene/Si composite anode materials for Li-ion batteries, which can increase the battery capacity by more than 20%,” Dr. Li added. “For energy saving, we have graphene flake and graphene oxide products, which can conduct heat in a way to reduce the excess heat buildup in the LED chip so as to maintain the LED in the proper operation zone, to reduce the chance of operating near thermal bleaching region, which reduces luminance while consuming excess energy.”
XG Sciences CEO Philip Rose said that XG Sciences, Lansing, MI, has been recognized as a global leader in the development and commercialization of graphene since its formation in 2006.
“In addition to an ongoing R&D program, XG Sciences has an annual production capacity of more than 80 tons of our unique xGnP graphene nanoplatelets from two manufacturing facilities,” Rose said. “We have also developed value-added products based on xGnP and our proprietary manufacturing processes – thermal management films and ‘papers,’ electrode materials for ultracapacitors and batteries, and conductive inks and coatings.
“At XG Sciences, graphene is more than a product line in a catalog of chemical and graphite products,” Rose added. “Graphene is all we do. That single-minded focus means we are always looking for ways to partner with forward-looking customers to drive this technology into new industrial and consumer products. Although we are a technology company, we are also a customer-centric organization; for instance, in order to more closely meet our customers’ application needs, our xGnP graphene nanoplatelets are available in nine different grades.”
Key Markets for Graphene
There are plenty of opportunities for graphene in the field of flexible and printed electronics, beginning with transparent conductors and sensors.
“Flexible transparent conductors, Li-Ion batteries, super capacitors, NEMS, sensors and advanced composites are the main applications,” said de la Fuente.
“Although our ink is suitable for use as a transparent conductor and we have done quite a few touch-related demonstrations, this particular market is quite competitive, so we’re looking at other markets as well - basically anything that requires a low-cost conductive ink,” Frantz said. “This includes flexible photovoltaics, smart windows, smart fabrics, energy storage and even additives to polymers or other inks.”
Dr. Li said that Bluestone Global Tech, Ltd. focuses on the markets that the unique properties of graphene can differentiate with current and/or competing materials. These markets include:
“There is virtually no limit to the markets that benefit from our xGnP graphene nanoplatelets; any company looking to improve the physical properties of their materials, or achieve higher thermal or electrical conductivity levels, will find an xGnP grade to meet its needs,” Rose added. “Similarly, customers in industries from automotive to packaging believe our XG Leaf thermal management paper and our conductive XG Ink can help improve their products’ performance in a variety of ways.
“Specifically within the flexible and printed electronics market, XG Ink is well suited to meet the needs for applications between commodity carbon inks having low conductivity, and high-priced silver inks having high conductivity,” Rose added.
With that in mind, graphene producers already are seeing opportunities in the PE marketplace. One area that Dr. Li expects grapheme to excel in the wearable/flexible electronics space.
“The answer is more than positive,” Dr. Li said. “You will see the wearable/flexible electronics come to market strongly starting this year. This requires new technology and new materials such as graphene. Graphene will be applied beyond touch panel and electronics in year 2014.”
Frantz said that one of the ways CGP thinks graphene may be used first is as an additive to enhance the properties of other materials.
“For example, one of our collaborators in the UK, Novalia Ltd., has mixed graphene ink with commercially available carbon inks to make them conductive enough to be considered as an alternative to silver inks,” Frantz said. “These hybrid inks cost roughly 1/10 the cost of silver inks, which can open up whole markets of interactive displays and signage.”
“We see a lot of activity in graphene ink formulations and graphene films on polymer for flexible transparent conductors,” de la Fuente said.
“XG Sciences’ customers used to have to choose between carbon or silver; in other words, between low prices or high conductivity,” Rose said. “XG Sciences’ graphene-based XG Ink products allow customers to ask the critical question: ‘How conductive does this line really need to be?’
“Our graphene-based XG Ink products offer conductivity levels three to 10 times greater than carbon inks, at a fraction of what customers have been forced to pay for silver,” Rose added. “For those applications that actually require extremely high conductivity, silver remains an option – albeit an expensive option with tremendous price fluctuations. For a growing number of applications, however, printed line manufacturers can achieve high conductivity levels at more reasonable pricing, allowing them to better serve their customers.
“The key word is ‘options,’” Rose concluded. “XG Sciences’ graphene-based XG Ink offers our customers a number of options: solvent-based or aqueous, gravure or flexographic printing, and excellent adhesion to a variety of substrates. This provides our customers with options to choose the conductive ink that best meets their technical and financial specifications.”
Key Advantages of Graphene
The major advantages of graphene can potentially be beneficial for flexible and printed electronics applications.
“Graphene has many amazing properties: mechanical strength, high electrical and thermal conductivity, flexibility, transparency and excellent barrier properties,” Frantz said. “So it’s really easy to imagine its use in a wide variety of applications, which researchers worldwide are now working on. Within flexible and printed electronics, some possibilities include: printed conductive traces, heat transport, transparent conductor for fully flexible devices, thin film battery electrodes, transparent EMI shielding and others.
“The key to realizing this potential will be to produce graphene at a cost that is competitive with other products already in the market place,” Frantz added.
“The industry is looking for alternative materials for flexible transparent conductors, and graphene films have an outstanding combination of high conductivity, high optical transmittance, flexibility, chemical stability and low cost at industrial scale,” said de la Fuente. “Graphene is much better for the environment than others solutions of rare earths or metals.”
“The key advantages of graphene is this wonder material provides great properties in one material simultaneously,” Dr. Li said. “As mentioned before, these properties are transparency, electric/thermal conductivity, elasticity/flexibility and ability to be modified as an ion sponge or ion filter. These materials can be massively produced in a reasonable cost. We expects some industries will benefit by this wonder materials and revolutionize their products in two years.”
Outlook for Graphene
Understandably, graphene suppliers see plenty of opportunities for graphene in the near future.
“Nowadays, the graphene market is primarily for research and development of next generations devices,” de la Fuente said. “The market is still small (less than $10 million USD worldwide) but it is growing fast. We expect a $100 million market for 2018, with some niche applications hitting the market in 2016. The bigger impact in the industry will be in the long term, probably from 2025.”
“It’s only been about 10 years since the start of active R&D on graphene, so its still early days for the commercialization of this material,” Frantz noted. “That said, it’s already starting to make its way into some commercial applications. In the near term, the consensus in the community seems to be that the first commercial applications will be in energy storage (e.g. supercapacitors) or as an additive to other materials. We tend to agree with this assessment.”
“We expect that the investment in graphene from industrial sectors will increase exponentially,” Dr. Li said. “Manufacturing sectors which benefited from the injection of graphene materials/technologies will demonstrate new products and gain market share, especially some companies from Asia. We have seen graphene-based products in the market emerging today and some will come by the end of this year, such as portable, wearable electronic gadgets. In the mid-term, we expect graphene to play an important role in electronic devices similar to that of silicon in semiconductor devices. We also expect that graphene and chemically modified graphene products can be applied to various industries in three to five years.”
“As one would expect, XG Sciences is extremely optimistic about graphene’s future,” said Rose. “Our customers around the world are looking for ways to make their products stronger, lighter, more conductive and more efficient. XG Sciences’ graphene products help them to accomplish this without disrupting their pricing models. Until recently, the challenge has been to take graphene out of the labs and onto the manufacturing floors.
“In the near term, XG Sciences will lead the industry as one of the first companies to invest in commercializing graphene and value-added products,” Rose added. “Over the next few years, other graphene suppliers may make the leap from producing sample-sized quantities under controlled laboratory conditions, to investing in full-scale mass production.
“We have licensed our base technology to both Cabot and POSCO in an effort to further seed the industry with potential production volume,” Rose concluded. “Adding global manufacturing capacity will help expand the graphene industry, as more and more customers are exposed to the benefits they can achieve by incorporating graphene into their own products. At XG Sciences, we strongly believe that our ongoing focus on developing and producing base xGnP and value-added products containing xGnP will allow us to maintain our market leadership position.”
Considering these properties, it is no surprise that printed electronics researchers and manufacturers are interested in what graphene can do for them. Graphene could play a role in integrated circuitry, transistors and printed electronics, leading to transparent, bendable transistors.
Researchers are currently studying the potential of commercializing graphene. There are new facilities opening – the Cambridge Graphene Centre (CGC) comes to mind – as well as research grants. There are also plenty of innovative companies that are working in the graphene space.
One such company is Graphenea. Headquartered in San Sebastian, Spain, Graphenea produces graphene in powder form and CVD graphene in film form.
“Graphenea has developed high quality, cost competitive and industrial scalable graphene production processes. Graphenea is a reliable graphene producer for research and industrial applications of graphene materials,” said Graphenea CEO Jesus de la Fuente. “We invest heavily in R&D to improve our production process and increase quality. Graphene is not just one material in a family of new materials. Each customer or each application needs a specific graphene material. Graphenea works together with industrial partners to develop custom materials for their applications. Graphenea produces graphene in powder form and CVD graphene in film form.
J. Patrick Frantz of Cambridge Graphene Platform Ltd. (CGP), Cambridge, UK, said that CGP utilizes pristine graphene for its products.
“CGP’s unique contribution to the field of graphene is the development of a scalable process to produce pristine graphene dispersions/inks with a very high monolayer content,” Frantz noted. “There are many other varieties of graphene inks on the market, but most of these usually contain functionalized graphene (e.g. graphene oxide) and are composed of graphene nanoplatelets consisting of many layers. Our dispersions and inks retain the properties of pure graphene.”
Dr. Xuesong (Bruce) Li, co-founder and vice president, advanced materials for Bluestone Global Tech, Ltd. (BGT), Wappingers Falls, NY, said that BGT has pioneered the field of graphene production and graphene applications in electronic, energy generation and saving applications.
“BGT developed a proprietary technique for mass production of graphene film,” Dr. Li said. “One of the major issues associated with CVD graphene is the need to etch copper substrate after graphene growth, which is an expensive process and generates lots of chemical waste. The new technique developed by BGT detaches CVD graphene from its metal substrate in an electrochemical way without consuming the substrate, and thus reduces cost, chemical consumption and environmental impact. With this technique, high quality graphene films have been produced and used for optoelectronics and electronics.
“In addition to the production of high-quality CVD graphene materials, BGT has developed processes that could integrate graphene with semiconductor components for future high-speed electronics and communication applications, which utilize the unique property of graphene in THz carrier propagation speed,” Dr. Li noted. “In particular, BGT has launched the first graphene FET (field-effect transistor ) product in the market.
“In the field of energy storage, BGT created a graphene/Si composite anode materials for Li-ion batteries, which can increase the battery capacity by more than 20%,” Dr. Li added. “For energy saving, we have graphene flake and graphene oxide products, which can conduct heat in a way to reduce the excess heat buildup in the LED chip so as to maintain the LED in the proper operation zone, to reduce the chance of operating near thermal bleaching region, which reduces luminance while consuming excess energy.”
XG Sciences CEO Philip Rose said that XG Sciences, Lansing, MI, has been recognized as a global leader in the development and commercialization of graphene since its formation in 2006.
“In addition to an ongoing R&D program, XG Sciences has an annual production capacity of more than 80 tons of our unique xGnP graphene nanoplatelets from two manufacturing facilities,” Rose said. “We have also developed value-added products based on xGnP and our proprietary manufacturing processes – thermal management films and ‘papers,’ electrode materials for ultracapacitors and batteries, and conductive inks and coatings.
“At XG Sciences, graphene is more than a product line in a catalog of chemical and graphite products,” Rose added. “Graphene is all we do. That single-minded focus means we are always looking for ways to partner with forward-looking customers to drive this technology into new industrial and consumer products. Although we are a technology company, we are also a customer-centric organization; for instance, in order to more closely meet our customers’ application needs, our xGnP graphene nanoplatelets are available in nine different grades.”
Key Markets for Graphene
There are plenty of opportunities for graphene in the field of flexible and printed electronics, beginning with transparent conductors and sensors.
“Flexible transparent conductors, Li-Ion batteries, super capacitors, NEMS, sensors and advanced composites are the main applications,” said de la Fuente.
“Although our ink is suitable for use as a transparent conductor and we have done quite a few touch-related demonstrations, this particular market is quite competitive, so we’re looking at other markets as well - basically anything that requires a low-cost conductive ink,” Frantz said. “This includes flexible photovoltaics, smart windows, smart fabrics, energy storage and even additives to polymers or other inks.”
Dr. Li said that Bluestone Global Tech, Ltd. focuses on the markets that the unique properties of graphene can differentiate with current and/or competing materials. These markets include:
- Use of large area graphene as transparent conductive electrode for touch panel, display and solar cell.
- Utilize graphene’s high electric conductivity in sub nanometers in semiconductors, FET and process solutions for other electronic devices.
- Employ graphene flake and its high elastic property to form GrSi composite for LiB anode applications.
- Use high thermal conductivity of graphene for heat dissipation applications in LED, electronics, automobile and other industries.
- Utilize the ionic sponge property of graphene oxide as an ionic filter for packaging , distillation and filtering businesses.
“There is virtually no limit to the markets that benefit from our xGnP graphene nanoplatelets; any company looking to improve the physical properties of their materials, or achieve higher thermal or electrical conductivity levels, will find an xGnP grade to meet its needs,” Rose added. “Similarly, customers in industries from automotive to packaging believe our XG Leaf thermal management paper and our conductive XG Ink can help improve their products’ performance in a variety of ways.
“Specifically within the flexible and printed electronics market, XG Ink is well suited to meet the needs for applications between commodity carbon inks having low conductivity, and high-priced silver inks having high conductivity,” Rose added.
With that in mind, graphene producers already are seeing opportunities in the PE marketplace. One area that Dr. Li expects grapheme to excel in the wearable/flexible electronics space.
“The answer is more than positive,” Dr. Li said. “You will see the wearable/flexible electronics come to market strongly starting this year. This requires new technology and new materials such as graphene. Graphene will be applied beyond touch panel and electronics in year 2014.”
Frantz said that one of the ways CGP thinks graphene may be used first is as an additive to enhance the properties of other materials.
“For example, one of our collaborators in the UK, Novalia Ltd., has mixed graphene ink with commercially available carbon inks to make them conductive enough to be considered as an alternative to silver inks,” Frantz said. “These hybrid inks cost roughly 1/10 the cost of silver inks, which can open up whole markets of interactive displays and signage.”
“We see a lot of activity in graphene ink formulations and graphene films on polymer for flexible transparent conductors,” de la Fuente said.
“XG Sciences’ customers used to have to choose between carbon or silver; in other words, between low prices or high conductivity,” Rose said. “XG Sciences’ graphene-based XG Ink products allow customers to ask the critical question: ‘How conductive does this line really need to be?’
“Our graphene-based XG Ink products offer conductivity levels three to 10 times greater than carbon inks, at a fraction of what customers have been forced to pay for silver,” Rose added. “For those applications that actually require extremely high conductivity, silver remains an option – albeit an expensive option with tremendous price fluctuations. For a growing number of applications, however, printed line manufacturers can achieve high conductivity levels at more reasonable pricing, allowing them to better serve their customers.
“The key word is ‘options,’” Rose concluded. “XG Sciences’ graphene-based XG Ink offers our customers a number of options: solvent-based or aqueous, gravure or flexographic printing, and excellent adhesion to a variety of substrates. This provides our customers with options to choose the conductive ink that best meets their technical and financial specifications.”
Key Advantages of Graphene
The major advantages of graphene can potentially be beneficial for flexible and printed electronics applications.
“Graphene has many amazing properties: mechanical strength, high electrical and thermal conductivity, flexibility, transparency and excellent barrier properties,” Frantz said. “So it’s really easy to imagine its use in a wide variety of applications, which researchers worldwide are now working on. Within flexible and printed electronics, some possibilities include: printed conductive traces, heat transport, transparent conductor for fully flexible devices, thin film battery electrodes, transparent EMI shielding and others.
“The key to realizing this potential will be to produce graphene at a cost that is competitive with other products already in the market place,” Frantz added.
“The industry is looking for alternative materials for flexible transparent conductors, and graphene films have an outstanding combination of high conductivity, high optical transmittance, flexibility, chemical stability and low cost at industrial scale,” said de la Fuente. “Graphene is much better for the environment than others solutions of rare earths or metals.”
“The key advantages of graphene is this wonder material provides great properties in one material simultaneously,” Dr. Li said. “As mentioned before, these properties are transparency, electric/thermal conductivity, elasticity/flexibility and ability to be modified as an ion sponge or ion filter. These materials can be massively produced in a reasonable cost. We expects some industries will benefit by this wonder materials and revolutionize their products in two years.”
Outlook for Graphene
Understandably, graphene suppliers see plenty of opportunities for graphene in the near future.
“Nowadays, the graphene market is primarily for research and development of next generations devices,” de la Fuente said. “The market is still small (less than $10 million USD worldwide) but it is growing fast. We expect a $100 million market for 2018, with some niche applications hitting the market in 2016. The bigger impact in the industry will be in the long term, probably from 2025.”
“It’s only been about 10 years since the start of active R&D on graphene, so its still early days for the commercialization of this material,” Frantz noted. “That said, it’s already starting to make its way into some commercial applications. In the near term, the consensus in the community seems to be that the first commercial applications will be in energy storage (e.g. supercapacitors) or as an additive to other materials. We tend to agree with this assessment.”
“We expect that the investment in graphene from industrial sectors will increase exponentially,” Dr. Li said. “Manufacturing sectors which benefited from the injection of graphene materials/technologies will demonstrate new products and gain market share, especially some companies from Asia. We have seen graphene-based products in the market emerging today and some will come by the end of this year, such as portable, wearable electronic gadgets. In the mid-term, we expect graphene to play an important role in electronic devices similar to that of silicon in semiconductor devices. We also expect that graphene and chemically modified graphene products can be applied to various industries in three to five years.”
“As one would expect, XG Sciences is extremely optimistic about graphene’s future,” said Rose. “Our customers around the world are looking for ways to make their products stronger, lighter, more conductive and more efficient. XG Sciences’ graphene products help them to accomplish this without disrupting their pricing models. Until recently, the challenge has been to take graphene out of the labs and onto the manufacturing floors.
“In the near term, XG Sciences will lead the industry as one of the first companies to invest in commercializing graphene and value-added products,” Rose added. “Over the next few years, other graphene suppliers may make the leap from producing sample-sized quantities under controlled laboratory conditions, to investing in full-scale mass production.
“We have licensed our base technology to both Cabot and POSCO in an effort to further seed the industry with potential production volume,” Rose concluded. “Adding global manufacturing capacity will help expand the graphene industry, as more and more customers are exposed to the benefits they can achieve by incorporating graphene into their own products. At XG Sciences, we strongly believe that our ongoing focus on developing and producing base xGnP and value-added products containing xGnP will allow us to maintain our market leadership position.”
