Graphene has become known as an important part in the manufacturing of nanotech products. In such a young industry, we're starting to unravel the beginnings of a complex supply chain.
The term graphene has been used to denote a variety of materials relatively carelessly. In time however, the term has been expanded to include materials derived from graphene, such as graphene oxide, which has oxygen atoms attached to the edges, or two-dimensional sheets made from other materials, such as borophene, in which boron atoms replace carbon atoms. With this historicity, graphene is a general term that refers to any material that is one atom thick and made of carbon.
Since the work of English chemist Benjamin Collins Brodie in 1859, scientists have understood that theoretically producing impossibly thin sheets of carbon is possible. In the late 1940s, Canadian physicist P. C. Wallace also realized that pure, defect-free graphene would have impressive material properties. At that time, graphene was still a hypothetical molecule because it had never been observed in a laboratory setting and no one knew for sure if it was even feasible to isolate a single sheet of graphene.
In 2004, researchers were able to create single sheets of pure graphene without the use of sophisticated machinery. At the University of Manchester in England, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov applied adhesive tape to a block of graphite before peeling off layers of graphene. Their finding, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2010, sparked a rush to prove graphene's amazing qualities and figure out how to manufacture it in large quantities.
The hexagonal lattice structure that the atoms make, which Joseph Meany compares to a chicken wire fence, is what gives graphene its extraordinary capabilities. Three other carbon atoms are connected to each carbon atom, which has four outer-shell electrons. Due to the structure's ability to lay flat it offers incredible strength and outstanding conductivity (both electrical and thermal), but is still porous and transparent to light.
To put this into perspective, structural steel is 325 times stronger than graphene, which has a maximum tensile strength of 130 GPa. A sheet of graphene weighs just 770 micrograms per square meter and is extremely light. That implies that a sheet large enough to cover an entire football field would weigh less than a gram, according to Spanish company Graphenea.
Those are theoretical material constraints that only apply to perfectly pure graphene. Results from evaluating actual manufactured samples in the real world are less miraculous but yet impressive.
Graphene became the most heralded carbon compound as testing appeared to demonstrate some of its anticipated features. One of the difficulties is persuading designers and engineers a composite won't transform into something super-strong and super-hard just because they add some graphene flakes to it.
Graphene materials and related technology need to be produced and distributed throughout global supply chains in a viable, effective, and efficient manner in order to realize their full potential.
A Young Industrial Supply Chain
Industrial manufacturers are starting to understand how to generate high-quality graphene at prices and turnaround times that are profitable. The entire industry is starting to comprehend the kinds of products and materials that will be desired for mass-market applications.
Numerous businesses are forming within the supply chain to utilize graphene, scatter it in material matrices, and create goods and gadgets that take advantage of its special features.
However, there are still informational gaps across the entire sector. The numerous characteristics of graphene are frequently unknown to potential end users and product designers, and consumers are not yet persuaded of its potential uses.
In addition, putting together a functional prototype necessitates a large investment in knowledge, tools, and supply chain connections. A prototype's transition to mass production typically involves hefty upfront costs for manufacturing and supply chain technology, an investment that might not pay off merely because of a lack of consumer awareness.
Things are getting better, however. The graphene supply chain is currently developing, with an expanding number of intermediary companies providing microservices and creating a strong supply ecosystem.
Manufacturers of production and R&D equipment, suppliers of 2D materials, experts in matrix dispersal and functionalization, manufacturers of finished goods, and distributors in both the commercial and consumer markets should all be a part of this ecosystem.
The good news is that the dial is always going up: each year, the industrial supply chain for graphene gets stronger, more resilient, and more widely disseminated. In a few short years, graphene products will be available in consumer and business catalogs if the current course of events is maintained.
Graphene Production for Research Purposes
The majority of the graphene created so far has been used for research. As a result, production methods have a propensity to prioritize consistency and quality over scalability and viability.
Scientists at the University of Manchester in the UK discovered graphene, an allotrope of the element carbon, for the first time in 2004. It was soon acknowledged as one of the most exciting nanomaterials (substances smaller than 100 nm) ever found.
The amazing electrical, thermal, and optical capabilities of graphene as a two-dimensional material are a feature of the complicated and counterintuitive principles of quantum physics, which only work at extremely low spatial dimensions.
Graphene was first created by subtractively processing graphite, yielding a high-quality, pure material that was ideal for scientific investigation.
But production is now shifting away from lab-based processes and toward commercial, scalable ones, along with the industrial supply chain that will enable mass graphene production.
Samsung, a major player in the electronics industry, is now the firm that invests the most in patents based on graphene. This is not surprising because the main potential future application for this 2D material is likely nanoelectronics.
Industrializing Production and Establishing a Supply Chain Ecosystem
In addition to subtractive graphite manufacturing, chemical vapor deposition methods have also historically been used to create graphene. The latter technique is scalable, however it can only produce monolayers of excellent graphene films appropriate for use as semiconductor materials.
The industry is aiming to enhance bulk production techniques in addition to scaling up chemical vapor deposition technology to satisfy industrial demand for monolayer graphene semiconductors.
This requires the sector to have a strong industrial supply chain, which includes equipment producers, suppliers, and distributors. To fulfill its numerous and varied potential uses in high-value manufacturing, such an innovation environment is necessary.
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