凯发

1) The latest research progress: 

The main preparation methods of graphene oxide are Hummers and modified Hummers, while grapheme powder is in oxidation-reduction method.

In addition, it can be prepared via other approaches for grapheme macroscopic materials, such as hydrothermal method and freeze drying method for the preparation of graphene macro sponge, and MgO templating method for the preparation of three-dimensional porous graphene.

a) The improvement on production technique of grapheme powder

There are several factors which restraint the industrialization of grapheme powder, such as high producing cost, excessive amount of oxidant, waste acid and waste water. The weak oxidation method, which is developed by The Sixth Element (Changzhou) Materials Technology Co., Ltd.,can reduce the quantity of oxidant, produce less waste acid and waste water, and improve the production efficiency and reduce energy consumption.

b) Graphene / Al composites

Graphene is a new kind of materials with advanced properties. Meanwhile,it can improve the performance significantly in polymer and inorganics composites. But,up to now, there are very few searches using graphene reinforced metal matrix composites, and the volume fraction is low.

Pressure infiltration patent technology was reported by Harbin Institute of Technology to make graphene/Al-12Si composites with different graphene volume fraction, including 1vol.%, 3vol.%, 5vol.% and 7vol.%. Compared with Al-12Si alloy, the properties of the composite were greatly enhanced and improved. The elastic modulus of the composite increases linearly with the increase of graphene (80% increase).While the hardness increased 180% and the compression strength increased 100%. When graphite content was 3 vol.%, the bending strength and tensile strength reached the highest, respectively 617MPa(increased 230%) and 364MPa(increased 130%), with the plasticity improving. Therefore, graphene/Al composites have a broad scope in aeronautics and astronautics field as construction materials.By adding graphene, the thermal expansion coefficient of heat insulating composites decreased significantly and the thermal conductivity increased. Therefore, graphene/Al composites were also likely to be used in high performance electronic packaging field. The friction and wear coefficient of graphene/Al-12Si composites decreased significantly with increasing graphene content; when the content reached to 7 vol.%, the friction and wear coefficient reduced to under 0.2, which showed that the composite was a kind of self-lubricating material.

2) Problems to be solved

a) Graphene oxide and graphene powder have broad application prospects, but there are some urgent problems need to be solved before they can be commercially viable for those applications.

Recently, the biggest bottleneck in graphene industry is downstream applications, so the key is the breakthrough in one or two downstream application fields of graphene, and among these applications, graphene is most likely to achieve industrialization breakthrough in lithium-ion batteries, paints, inks, plastics, or other fields.

Oxidized graphene and graphene powder can be used widely in composite materials, sensors, supercapacitors and other fields. But it is rarely reported on achieving commercial application. Research from Harbin Institute of Technology shows that the properties have significantly improved by adding graphene in the graphene aluminum composite, and also indicates a new commercial application direction for graphene metal matrix composites.

b) Domestic research institutes and industry should further enhance  their relations and cooperation

Domestic universities, academics should focus on the application rather than basic research. Meanwhile, in order to promote the commercialization and industrialization of graphene, a transfer mechanism to import latest research results into current industry system and to foster the cooperation relationship between academia and industry is urgently needed.

c) Financial capital for industrialization of graphene

Investment is important for the development of graphene industry, especially when the industry is still developing. It is very difficult for enterprises to resist the risk of lack of money, so they need smooth financing channels. In the view point of investors, the capital market and government support are the major sources of investment funds while bank capital is not involved. Investment scale will determine the industrialization process, therefore, the financial capital play an important role in the process of industrialization of graphene.