Australia-headquartered First Graphene (FGR) has completed the technology transfer of an electrochemical process for hybrid-graphene materials from the University of Manchester.
The advanced materials firm transferred the technology to its UK industrial laboratories and has completed two successful pilot trials at its manufacturing facility in Henderson, Western Australia.
FGR’s researchers are now testing the performance of these materials in energy storage applications after initial tests showed prototype supercapacitor devices (coin cell) could be manufactured with these materials.
The company hopes to have a working prototype by the end of the year, but additional testing is being delayed because of the coronavirus restricting access to its facilities.
FGR signed a worldwide, exclusive licence agreement with the University of Manchester for the manufacturing process last September.
Since October, 2019, the company has demonstrated the synthesis of metal oxide, the synthesis of pristine (zero-oxygen) graphene materials at litre scale, and the manufacture of metal oxide decorated hybrid graphene and pristine (zero-oxygen) graphene materials at the multi-kilogram scale.
The manufacturing process builds on the company’s existing electrochemical processing, which is scaled to 100 tonne/year capacity at its manufacturing site at Henderson.
The transfer of technology follows a UK government funded EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Council) project that began last October.
Craig McGuckin, managing director of First Graphene, said: “We are really excited by the potential for these hybrid-graphene materials.
“We have proven the chemistry does transfer at scale. We are disappointed that testing is being delayed due to current circumstances with the coronavirus but will use this time to strengthen our end-user relationships.”
