Gregory Erickson, Founder and CFO of General Graphene Corporation, explains the characteristics of graphene that make it an adaptable material
For quite some time, graphene has been promoted as a potential game-changer in the field of materials science due to its unique combination of properties, including exceptional electrical conductivity, impermeability, biocompatibility, high thermal conductivity, and strength. Moreover, graphene is transparent, chemically inert, extremely thin (measuring less than a nanometer), and remarkably lightweight (weighing less than one milligram per square meter).
Graphene is widely regarded as the strongest, thinnest, and most conductive material at the nanoscale, making people perceive it as an attractive solution for addressing various challenges. Nonetheless, we firmly believe that the true potential of graphene can only be unlocked by integrating it with other substances to generate innovative solutions that exploit its distinctive properties and achieve exceptional performance across different fields.
Our goal is to expedite graphene’s evolution from a promising future prospect to a current and dominant presence in the realm of materials science by combining it with existing materials.
The Group of Carbon Elements
Despite being perceived as a single substance since its discovery, graphene actually encompasses a range of carbon-based materials. As the number of graphene layers increases, the crystal structure and alignment are altered, doping agents are introduced, and various substrates are utilized, leading to changes in the properties of graphene.
Similar to carbon, which exists in various recognizable but distinct forms, such as diamond and graphite, graphene also encompasses a range of variants. By adjusting or modifying graphene to accentuate specific characteristics and combining it with other materials, we can generate a diverse array of materials, which may or may not be classified as ‘graphene.’ At the nanoscale, carbon is present as nanotubes and graphene. Beyond the nanoscale, in the microscale, carbon can form structures that lack crystallinity, which are referred to as amorphous carbon materials.
The Process of Utilizing Graphene’s Versatility
The exceptional potential of graphene stems from its distinct combination of properties, which can be applied to a wide range of industries and applications. However, it’s essential to acknowledge that graphene is not a universal material, and its properties depend on multiple factors such as the type of graphene produced (single or multi-layer), the process parameters employed, and the number of inputs used.
From the beginning, we understood the importance of having a production process that can produce high-quality and consistent graphene suitable for various applications in a cost-effective and scalable way. Our team of experienced scientists has created numerous recipes tailored to meet specific application requirements. The success of commercializing graphene-based applications boils down to two factors: their functionality and cost-effectiveness.
Our team of engineers designed GG 3.0, an industrial-scale atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) production system that is a novel approach to growing graphene. With the integration of mass production and innovative high-throughput graphene transfer systems, we are now capable of growing and transferring graphene onto a broader range of substrates in a faster and more efficient manner than ever before.
By blending science and engineering, we have devised a process that permits us to customize graphene’s properties to suit various applications. We firmly believe that by consistently innovating and optimizing our production process, we can unlock the complete potential of graphene’s versatility and implement it in a cost-effective manner – especially at a commercial scale – in a broad range of applications.
What Comes Next in the Development of Graphene-based Applications?
If we examine the silicon wafer industry, we can observe that the market value of silicon wafers as a single material was approximately $9 billion in 2018. However, the market value of smartphones that were enabled by silicon chips in the same year was over $500 billion, a difference of more than 55 times.
We hold the belief that graphene possesses similar potential as a transformative material, akin to silicon. Graphene has the ability to not only improve existing products and technologies but also facilitate the development of future ones. As a result, our primary focus at General Graphene has always been to produce high-quality graphene at a large scale and at an affordable cost, as we believe this is the key to unlocking graphene’s full potential.
We have accomplished that objective, and now we are eager to spearhead the graphene revolution. Our graphene is functional, and its cost is substantially lower than what other players in the graphene industry can offer.
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Originally posted on Innovation News Network. See the original article page here.
Please note, this article will also appear in the eleventh edition of Innovation News Network’s quarterly publication.