Who is we Herc?
No Graphene Users? What the?
You are acting Herc like what you are saying is a gotcha point.
Nope. Just really part of the picture that is forming.
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http://www.graphenetracker.com/invest/
Graphene is a form of carbon, which is sometimes derived from graphite ore and sometimes synthetically synthesized.
Graphite ore is dug in mines. To obtain graphene from graphite ore, one needs to perform another manufacturing step, for example liquid phase exfoliation or another chemical “exfoliation” procedure.
“Exfoliation” is a term that describes the breaking of bulk graphite ore into its constituent graphene layers. With chemical exfoliation, one typically obtains “dirty” graphene, which is not actually pure graphene but rather graphene attached to other chemicals or to other graphene layers.
A popular process to synthetically make graphene is chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of graphene onto another material. CVD does not require graphite ore, as it uses various gases as precursors to graphene. CVD tends to result in nice clean layers of graphene, most commonly marketed to scientific researchers, although the method has been gaining popularity among microchip and display manufacturers.
At this stage, the graphene is in the form of a piece of material waiting to be sculpted for the desired application. The next step is to process the graphene into a component, such as an electronic transistor, or a very strong fiber, before integrating the component into the final product, like a mobile phone or a bulletproof vest. A sketch of the basic route of graphene from the source to the product is shown in the following figure.
The orange boxes represent a specific state of graphene, while the text outside the orange boxes are names of companies which participate at that stage of the graphene chain. Let’s start at the bottom left, at the graphite ore.
According to the
US geological survey of 2012, more than half of the world’s graphite reserves lie in China. Recently, world governments have started to realize the technological importance of graphite, marking it second in importance after precious metals.
In response, China has acted to protect its resource by raising export taxes on the material, resulting in rising prices of graphite worldwide. Generally, being a commodity, the price of graphite tends to be volatile.
Keeping in mind that graphene consists of only one layer of carbon, one could think that a single graphite mine would be enough to supply the world with graphene, even if the wildest dreams of graphene usage materialize. That has shown to be true –
most real graphene products to date use less than a percent of a gram of graphene, and graphene prices have been largely decoupled from graphite prices.
The graphite miners listed here have shown a special interest in graphene and high-quality graphite, and for the most part have some connection with graphene companies and graphene research.
Remember though: only a tiny fraction of graphite mined in a mine will possibly ever be used to make graphene, and most of the graphite will go to other uses, so many graphite miners are either cautiously exploring graphene or heavily (ab)using the graphene hype to market their businesses, which are only vaguely connected to graphene.
Those companies listed here have at least been seen on graphene technical conferences and are active in graphene industry organizations.
Along with the mines, we list
Grafoid, a small Canadian company which is 40% owned by
Focus Graphite. Grafoid does not actually have a product to sell, but their idea is to act as a kind of liaison between the graphite mines, the scientific research groups, and graphene user companies.
Since early 2013, the Grafoid-Focus Graphite partnership is no longer unique on the graphene scene.
Lomiko Metals and Graphene Laboratories (the owner of Graphene Supermarket)
have forged a close partnership to exploit the
excellent graphite quality of Lomiko for its use in graphene. This partnership brought Lomiko much closer to the graphene industry, and we’ll keep following this interesting joint venture.
Most graphene nowadays is grown with the CVD process. CVD results in large-area graphene, which does not have superb quality, but is decent and will perform well for most purposes. The CVD machine market is dominated by a select number of companies, placing them in a very favourable position in the graphene market.
Most notably,
CVD Equipment Corporation and
Aixtron are the dominant providers of CVD machines for the graphene industry. CVD is used for many industrially relevant processes other than graphene, mostly related to the semiconductor and LED industry, however CVD Equipment has recently partnered with Grafoid, showing its dedication to graphene.
The second orange rectangle from the left on top of the above figure highlights companies which produce the large area graphene itself, by using CVD machines or something else. The main customer of the top three companies (
Graphenea,
Graphene Square,
Graphene Supermarket) are scientific researchers, although industrial sales have been increasing.
The last one,
Graphensic, has just started as a spin-off of a Swedish university, and is looking for investors. They are also looking to target scientific researchers for the time being. Graphenea, Graphene Square, and Graphene Supermarket are market-leading suppliers of research-grade graphene in Europe, Korea, and the US, respectively.
They are all out of the startup phase and may be looking for mid-range investor capital as well as partnerships with other industries.
Graphene-based compounds are mixtures of rather “dirty” graphene with something else, still retaining one particular great quality of graphene for a specific use.
This group of companies focuses on cheap production of something that is derived from graphene with a clear purpose in mind. Thus most of these companies own patents on graphene-related products and aim to partner with larger companies closer to the end user, or manufacturers from other industries which could make use of graphene.
The leading companies in the group “large-area graphene” have started to expand in this direction as well, and it will be interesting to see which sectors of the industry each will cover.
Between the second-level graphene companies and those that make final products like cellphones and satellite dishes lies a layer “advanced graphene components”, currently consisting of only two companies:
AMO and
Bluestone. These two seem to be the only companies making and selling components for modern technologies, such as graphene transistors, photodetectors, etc. That’s not to say that these are the only two companies that can make such devices, more likely there is just not market for them right now.
AMO has a lot of research experience, which allows them to qualify as the company that will make a custom graphene-based solution for your needs, although, again, Graphenea, Graphene Supermarket (Graphene Laboratories) and others on that level could also make custom graphene devices for you.
Similar to the second level companies, if you have venture capital or you own a high-tech company which is working on developing a modern product, you may look into partnering with companies of this group. Note that this layer of the chain is not strictly needed, meaning that middle-of-the-chain companies often bypass it to go directly to the end-user product manufacturer.
Finally, on the right-hand side of the graphene chain are companies which manufacture the end-user product. Many of those companies, like IBM, Samsung, and Sandisk, cover almost the entire graphene production chain, excluding the graphite mines (they tend to use CVD graphene). Obviously, only a small fraction of the business of these companies has to do with graphene, and the rest most likely has to do with silicon.
http://www.graphenetracker.com/invest/
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Graphene and 2D Materials
This event is the most commercially-focused conference and tradeshow on graphene and other 2D materials. Here is where companies unveil their latest technologies or launch their products, where technologists announce their latest commercially-relevant results, and where suppliers and end users from a variety of industries directly connect.
Graphene and 2D Materials is unique as it is co-located with other
highly synergetic end user industries such as printed electronics, wearable technologies, electric vehicles, and 3D printing. Last year 2,800 premium business/technology attendees and 200 exhibitors from over 47 countries participated.
Read more at:
http://www.idtechex.com/graphene-live-usa/conference.asp
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Look at the Sponsors for Graphene Europe 2015 and Graphene USA 2015
http://www.idtechex.com/graphene-live-usa/conference.asp
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Major end-users at Graphene and 2D Materials LIVE
Read more at:
http://www.printedelectronicsworld....r-end-users-at-graphene-and-2d-materials-live
Major end-users Lockheed Martin has already demonstrated the use of carbon nanotubes in the wingtip of its fighter jets. It is therefore an excellent technology developer for nano carbons and a potential end-user for graphene. Its specific focus on graphene has so far been on its water purification potential but it also has interest in using it as an additive in a range of composite materials.
Cabot Corporation is the world leader in black carbon, which is an additive in many applications such as tires. Black carbon is an incumbent rival to graphene and also carbon nanotubes. In many cases the latter has struggled to displace black carbon despite years of effort. Cabot itself has now started its programme on graphene, positioning itself primary as at the intermediary levels. Cabot therefore will have excellent insights.
Printed, Organic & Flexible Electronics Forecasts, TE Connectivity is $14 billion USD that has previously researched the use of carbon nanotube fibres as potential replacement for copper wires (either the shielding or the core). The main drive here is savings precious weight in aerospace applications. Graphene has also shown potential as an additive to copper, increasing its conductivity. TE Connectivity is best placed to offer insights here.
Nokia has been actively developing concepts and researching technologies around flexible and modular mobile phones. Graphene can act as a flexible transparent conducting film, therefore potentially helping the realisation of flexible displays. Nokia therefore has strong overall expertise here.
NASA is known as a technology leader. Graphene can find many applications in the aerospace sector. It can act asan additive bringing conductivity to a range of high-performance and light-weight plastics to make them electrostatically dissipative. Graphene can also be used in wires to potentially increase conductivity. NASA is based to report on these applications.
PPG Industries is PPG is primarily a $15 billion coatings company. Graphene has many properties that might deliver value in this sector. For instance, it can be a protective coating thanks to its high impermeability. PPG Industries also have previous extensive experience with other nanoparticles. They are now leveraging that experience to develop graphene.
3D Printing Materials Supercapacitors Maxwell Technologies is a leader in supplying supercapacitors. Graphene is also a potential candidate for replacing activated carbon as the electrode material in supercapacitors therefore this is a promising target market for graphene.
Maxwell is therefore an ideal end-user.
In our co-located conferences, we will have also invited many other companies active in the supercapacitors industry such as Elbit Systems, Bosch, Jaguar, Visedo, etc. In addition, we are bringing research organisations and graphene companies that specifically target this market.
London Graphene Ltd, Graphenea, UCLA, AZ Electronic Materials/Cornell University, and Stevens Institute of Technology are the prime examples. Commercial Applications and Manufacturing Progress We have also selected graphene companies that can discuss progress on end applications. A major challenge with graphene has been the lack of a killer application.
DirectaPlus will highlight their progress including the launch of a graphene-enabled bicycle with their partners, Victoria. Graphene Technologies and Xolve will be giving suppliers' prospective on key commercial applications.
Manufacturing is also a major challenge.
Here, we have invited Thomas Swan to present their liquid phase exfoliation technique, Abalonyx to give us an update on the latest technology trends for producing graphene oxide, and Group NanoXplore will also reveal details about their processes. Carbon Nanotubes This year we have also decided to bring in speakers from the world of carbon nanotubes.
Graphene and carbon nanotubes share many properties and therefore many target markets. The commercialization trajectory for graphene, at least in its platelet form, is following in the footsteps of carbon nanotubes.
Therefore, there is competition but also lessons to be learned. To this end, we have invited Oscial (and Zyvex) to present. Oscial has a promising single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) technology that can substantially reduce wt% loadings in end applications. We have also invited Raymor Industries who can produce high-quality SWCNTs using their plasma technique. SWeNT will also present on the potential of SWCNTs in the printed electronics world.
Read more at:
http://www.printedelectronicsworld....r-end-users-at-graphene-and-2d-materials-live
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"but at least we've established this morning that there's no current graphene end users in the world yet"
Here are some the research points that clarify this makes no sense in my opinion.
For Graphene Producers:
- Understand which markets are the best candidates for the industrial scale use of graphene
- Discover current market price points for different forms of graphene materials
- Learn what price points will be needed for graphene to compete effectively with existing materials in targeted markets
For Graphene Buyers and Users:
- Gain transparency into current market prices for different forms of graphene materials
- Discover which markets are viable for graphene as a competitive, functional material
- Improve your knowledge of bulk graphene materials
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Could be 1005 Wrong!!! DYOR !!!
Kind Regards
