Vol 6 Issue 8

Two new graphene companies have appeared on the radar this month. They both use a similar process to make graphene from methane gas with hydrogen as a by-product. Looking at the patents of the companies they both use a microwave reactor to tear apart the carbon and hydrogen atoms in methane, the carbon atoms recombine as graphene and the hydrogen atoms recombine to form hydrogen gas. There the similarities pause because the two companies have very different approaches for how to market their developments. The first company is Levidian, they are a relaunch of Cambridge Nanosystems from the UK. Their business model is focussed on using waste methane gas from a customer’s process. They use the reactor to lock up the carbon in the methane as graphene and claim carbon capture credits. The graphene production is secondary to this marketing approach. Using disclosures by the company, I was able to create a mass balance for the Levidian method. It appears that the process captures carbon from methane with around 30% efficiency (p.34). Not bad, but still some further progress to make. The second company is California based Lyten who publicly disclosed their activity just a few weeks ago. They were formed in 2015 and have been operating in stealth mode. Their graphene is used to make the electrode for a lithium sulphur (LiS) battery that has three times the energy density of normal lithium-ion batteries (p.35). They have probably decided to come out of stealth mode to raise capital for the scaling up of their process. The company is currently talking with five original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the automobile industry. The weakness of LiS batteries has been their capacity fade with repeated charge / discharge cycles. Lyten say they have improved on previous LiS designs so they might have something of interest for manufacturers of electric vehicles. Levidian patented their process in 2014 and Lyten in 2015. Lyten references the Levidian patents in their applications. This is how we know the two processes are very similar. Things could get interesting if one or the other company makes a lot of money in the future. As Elon Musk observed “A patent is like buying a lottery ticket to a lawsuit”. Staying with graphene powder manufacture, we feature John van Leeuwen of Universal Matter in a special feature (p.7). He is leading the drive to scale up the flash graphene process developed by Prof James Tour at Rice University. Universal Matter is definitely a company to watch in the future. All these graphene manufacturing processes are bottom-up, self-assembling graphene atom by atom to create high quality powders. These processes are in their infancy at present. If they can be scaled, they could disrupt the graphene-from-graphite manufacturers in future as they promise controllable quality graphene. This potential market disruption is something we’ll explore in the future, in the meantime there is much more to explore in this issue… Adrian Nixon, 1st December 2021

At the time of writing the Paralympic games are still in progress in Tokyo. The able-bodied Olympic games in Tokyo has ended and details of the technology behind some of the medal winning performances has leaked out. Graphene has been playing a role in these games. The gold medal for archery was won by Korea with their athlete using graphene from Standard Graphene to enhance the polymer composite bow. The Women’s cycling produced two gold medals for the Netherlands with the winner using Directa Plus graphene ink in the clothing to maintain optimum heating. Haydale worked with the British team to create a similar wearable technology with its graphene inks for British medal winners. The technology is secret at the moment but we can expect a trickle-down effect to spread graphene further out into the sports market. We have three special features this month. Our Women in Graphene series continues. Debbie an interviewed Akanksha Urade, from India. We noticed Akanksha’s work on our social media feeds, she has a gift for explaining complex subjects in a clear and concise way that shows she really understands the science. This matches our ABC approach (p.6) and we respect her talents, well worth a read. Debbie also interviewed Dr. Chris Griggs of the US Army ERDC. They have been excited about the potential for graphene for some time now and are actively exploring several avenues of development. They are working with Universal Matter who are developing the flash graphene process from Prof James Tour’s lab at Rice University. They also have a strong interest in the removal of toxins from wastewater and they have an increasing interest in graphene and infrastructure applications, particularly with concrete and asphalt. I interviewed the leadership team behind the world’s first application of unreinforced graphene enhanced concrete. The GEIC and Nationwide Engineering have made a quantum leap in the application of this technology that they call Concretene. Concrete can not only be made stronger, so less is used, but graphene also helps the concrete achieve its final strength much faster than anyone expected. We suspect there are more benefits waiting to be discovered from these trials. There is so much more happening in the world of graphene and 2D materials this month. I have run out of space to summarise here so I’ll encourage you to dive into this packed issue and explore further. Adrian Nixon, 1st September 2021