What Is Graphene?
Graphene is 10 or fewer layers of hexagonally arranged carbon.
Graphene Is Not a Single Material.
Industrially, graphene is a family of materials along a continuum of grades of quality, form factor, composition and methods of application. All have thus far failed to deliver graphene’s transformative potential for national defense, energy storage and America’s economic prosperity.
Graphene “is not even one material. It is a huge range of materials. A good comparison would be to how plastics are used.“
Prof. Sir Andre Geim, Nobel Laureate
What Makes Avadain’s Graphene Special
Only one grade confers all of graphene’s fantastic properties as an additive material: large (25+ µm² surface area), thin (<5 atomic layers) and defect free (LTDF) graphene. LTDF can lightweight products while adding substantial strength, high electrical and thermal conductivity, flexibility and durability. LTDF can transform advanced and additive manufacturing.
Our LTDF graphene gives industry the material it needs to transform thousands of products.
Comparison of Graphene Materials
Graphene is a family of materials, comprised of many different grades. Above 10 layers (such as nanoplatelets), the material becomes brittle and loses strength.
Ultra-high thermal and electrical conductivity are also lost. If the graphene structure has lots of defects, even if it is <10 layers, similar losses in strength and conductivity result in end-use applications.
Larger, thinner flakes results in better strength and lower loading when conductivity in applications is required.
Only one grade of graphene, Avadain LTDF graphene, confers all of these properties in thousands of applications.
Our Manufacturing Technology
We start with large flake graphite as our feedstock.
Avadain developed a novel exfoliation process using hydrogenation instead of commonly used oxidation.
Hydrogenation is fully reversible through thermal annealing. The process achieved exfoliation yields over 70%.
