Materials Science

Swedish start-up enables full-scale implementation of graphene

A breakthrough at Uppsala University has solved the practical implementation issues of the world’s strongest material graphene.
 
Up until now a major challenge has been agglomeration under upscaling that has effectively prevented utilization of the fantastic properties of graphene in real-life applications. The novel hybrid ionic graphene material named Aros Graphene solves this and is expected to revolutionize the way we design electronics, energy storage and mechanical systems. The highly anticipated revolution of graphene just came one step closer.
 
Graphene is a two-dimensional carbon material that is only one atom thick and it is the strongest and thinnest material ever known. It is also extremely conductive for heat and electricity as well as ultra-light and transparent. It was first isolated in 2004 and was rewarded with the Nobel prize in 2010. Graphene is predicted to revolutionize the energy sector and electronics and we could even build lightweight aircraft of graphene composites in the future.
 
But until now there has been one major challenge with graphene. More than 10 years after the first isolation of graphene we can still use it in very limited applications. Graphene’s properties dramatically degrades under upscaling. Researchers all over the world have been struggling with this challenge and recently a breakthrough was made at the Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University in Sweden.
 
A major challenge of working with graphene was the agglomeration under upscaling. We had fantastic properties at the nano-scale and less encouraging properties at macro-scale. The challenges have driven me to intensively think about solutions to bring such a wonder-material to industrial products while keeping its amazing properties, says Dr. Mamoun Taher.
 
Dr Mamoun Taher is a material scientist of Syrian origin, who came to Sweden in 2010 for his masters and PhD studies. Since 2015 he has been doing research at the Ångström Laboratory at Uppsala University and has also been working on graphene related projects with ABB, one of the largest engineering companies in the world.
 
Aros Graphene is a hybrid ionic graphene material that is easy and eco-friendly to manufacture and can be applied as an additive into a matrix, a coating or even by 3D printing.
 
With Aros Graphene we can finally realize the full potential of graphene and we have already shown that in preliminary tests with potential customers. The first commercial applications will be available in 2019.
 
The most remarkable discovery was, however, not that we had produced a new material but the striking properties we found that this novel material possessed. It turns out that Aros Graphene has the electrical and thermal properties of graphene not only in two dimensions but in 3D, and furthermore the surface has extremely low friction and high wear resistance.
 
This novel material is expected to pave the way for new sustainable products in a number of industrial applications, says Björn Lindh, entrepreneur, previously in Disruptive Materials with the famous material Upsalite, and now co-founder of Graphmatech, which will commercialize Aros Graphene.
 
Graphmatech has been accepted both to the EU-sponsored incubator program InnoEnergy and ABB’s Innovation and Growth hub SynerLeap and got initial funding from Vinnova. The next step is to prove Aros Graphene in different customer applications.
 
Additional information, pictures and data about Aros Graphene®, Graphmatech can be found at www.graphmatech.com