BUSINESS


scalable. There is no point testing a promising composite additive if you can’t then buy enough to build an aeroplane! While developing its 2D materials business, Thomas Swan has taken advantage of a wide range of support mechanisms for innovative Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Tapping into both European Horizon 2020 funding and grant support from Innovate UK, we have received hundreds of thousands of pounds in funding over the past three years. This has given us the time and resources to accelerate commercialisation of products, invaluable in maintaining the support of the board to continue the development of, and investment in, the business.


This no-nonsense, industrially


scalable, grant-supported approach appears to be paying off as we now have over 100 graphene customers and significant interest in our other 2D materials. In 2017, the company announced it was adding 2D boron nitride to its product portfolio, to be joined later by 2D molybdenum disulphide. Both products are from a list of about 25 2D materials that Thomas Swan has licensed from TCD using the high sheer manufacturing technique, which has come quite a long way from the early food blender trials. It works not only for graphite to graphene separation but also a range of other 3D layered materials that break down nicely to their 2D forms. These 2D materials provide a promising product pipeline for Thomas Swan’s Advanced Materials business, which focuses on the energy, light weighting and sensor markets. Stephen Bennington, who took


over as business director for the division in October 2017, is no stranger to the commercialisation of new materials. As the former CEO of Cella Energy, a spin out from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories that developed a hydrogen storage material, he understands the importance of a robust and industrially scalable process in combination with suitable market led demand. The company quickly realised that


selling graphene in a powder form with no application data was not going to work. Instead, we developed


a range of performance data to assist the sales team by highlighting what graphene can do if adopted into a range of applications. We also moved to make the product available in ‘industry friendly’ forms such as epoxy resin dispersions or polymer masterbatches. This move, slightly downstream from the raw material, has recently led to Thomas Swan announcing its intention to expand its range of formulated graphene materials - with a prototype product focusing on the manufacture of a carbon fibre composite. Using an independent testing


service, a 1% loading of graphene product in epoxy resin during the manufacture of a carbon fibre laminate led to significantly improved flexural strength and modulus. We have subsequently gone one step further and, in collaboration with an established and experienced third party, developed a graphene containing carbon fibre prepreg. Our application data show


graphene has significant benefits as an industrial additive. Presenting this data to composite-using downstream customers is starting to open doors and create supply chain partnerships to get a raw material all the way to a fully integrated application. The move downstream, to develop


useable forms of graphene, is common in the industry, with most graphene suppliers now making their products available as an ink, dispersion or masterbatch. Thomas Swan’s experience with single-wall carbon nanotubes has made us aware of the need to take more control of graphene application development to ensure rapid market adoption.


With our carbon nanotube


products, we wrongly believed that customers would do all the application R&D, and that our job was just to provide good quality raw materials. The problem with this approach is that you are not in control and are forced to wait patiently on the side-lines while others do the research. To avoid that mistake with our 2D products, we are driving a wide range of application research to show customers what the materials can do in their products – an idea that has been well received by the market.


Graphene


applications drawing most interest include composites, conductive inks, battery materials and resistive heating panels, although much of this demand is to satisfy commercial R&D rather than full commercial production. As the UK government deploys its


recently published industrial strategy and continues to pump millions of pounds into graphene development, where does Thomas Swan see the future of this ‘wonder’ material? Thanks to innovations like our


continuous high sheer manufacturing process, Thomas Swan believes that graphene is about to become very easy to make. Before it can be considered a commodity, however, it will also need to deliver real value in downstream applications, therefore the company is also increasing its efforts to understand market driven demand and application development. We plan to continue working closely with CPI and the newly established National Formulation Centre to ensure that graphene can be supplied in a useable form, and that it delivers a tangible performance improvement to the materials in which it is dispersed. At Thomas Swan, we believe the


government’s focus should shift to 2D materials in general and not just graphene. Why? Because sales of 2D boron nitride will almost certainly eventually overtake graphene products. Customers buy what works and not just what’s in fashion! As the initial hype over the


‘wonder’ material graphene starts to wane, progress is being made to develop scalable manufacturing techniques and to ensure graphene delivers some much-promised benefits to downstream applications.


Harry Swan is MD of Thomas Swan, a fourth-generation family owned speciality chemical company in the North East of England. This feature is based on the presentation he made at the SCI 2017 AGM when he received the SCI Carbon in Industry Medal.


Harry’s father Tom Swan died on 20 January 2018. See p50 for his obituary


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