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New Graphene Synthesized for Industrial Uses “Producing graphene could enable Metalysis to add
aterials researcher Metalysis Ltd. (South Yorkshire, UK) recently announced that it has developed a new synthesized graphene material that will soon be
available for industrial production. Metalysis, which is focused on commercializing its proprietary electrochemical metal- powder manufacturing technology, said its R&D successfully produced graphene using the company’s own process.
new, lucrative markets to those it is already serving; markets in which our arrival could be highly disruptive when global product demand is considered against the sheer amount of graphene we could produce in conjunction with our Gen 4, and later Gen 5 modular expansions,” Vaughan said. “Gen 5, by way of illustration, envisages scaling up production capability for highly profi table niche multi-metal powders to thousands of tonnes per annum.” Metalysis aimed to further optimize its process graphene
production, Vaughan said, and explore opportunities for commercial collaboration within the coming calendar year. Among its attributes, graphene is super strong, light- weight and highly conductive, exhibiting metallic-like proper- ties in 2D form. Graphene is expected to revolutionize a host of future applications across a wide range of sectors includ- ing light materials (aerospace and automotive), semiconduc- tors, energy electrodes, nanotechnology and printable inks. While graphene is traditionally known to incur high costs
Metalysis’ single monolayer graphene platelet.
Single-layer (monolayer) sheets of graphene have been synthesized at Metalysis’ industrial processing facilities in the Dearne Valley, as well as bilayer and low multi-layer amalgamations, the company said. A collective of scientists continues to focus on differentiating and separating the single atom width, highly lucrative sheets. The research team is comprised of scientists from the University of Manchester, the University of Sheffi eld, the University of Kent and Cambo- rne School of Mines. Metalysis fi led for its graphene break- through in February 2016. “We are pleased to announce another exciting achieve- ment on behalf of our technical team. Our proven technology can synthesize graphene monolayers with no operational or production cost impacts on our core metal powder busi- ness,” Metalysis CEO Dion Vaughan said in a statement.
of production, Metalysis can produce the largely industrially inaccessible material at no additional production cost to its conventional operations, according to the company, and it is now focused on further process optimization. Graphene production at Metalysis represents a valu- able opportunity to pursue additive revenue to the core titanium and tantalum metal powder production business, the company said, which primarily serves the 3D printing industry. Metalysis has global rights to a disruptive solid-state metal powder manufacturing technology, originally based on the Fray-Farthing-Chen Process invented at the University of Cambridge, UK, a low-cost and environmentally friendly process over traditional metal production methods. Metalysis benefi ts from a highly supportive shareholder base, which includes Iluka Resources, Woodford Funds and BHP Billiton. This has enabled the company to raise substan- tial funds, including £22m in CY2016, to increase productiv- ity and carry out its Generation 4 expansion. The modular Gen 4 process has the potential to be scaled up to provide hundreds of tonnes a year of valuable specialty metal-alloy powders, the company said.
February 2017 |
AdvancedManufacturing.org 33
Image courtesy University of Sheffi eld
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