How to speed up the industrialization of graphene

As a unique advanced carbon material, graphene is triggering a global industrial revolution. But generally speaking, the graphene industry is still in the early stage of development, especially the whole graphene industry chain has not been dredged and integrated. With this question, I interviewed a number of people in the graphene industry recently.



External environment: accelerating industrialization



Graphene is the thinnest and strongest nano-material in the world, and it is also the material with the best conductivity and thermal conductivity. While governments in various countries pay attention to the development of graphene industry, China has also put forward relevant plans and policies to promote the industrialization of graphene. It is reported that graphene was listed by the Ministry of Science and Technology this year as the "863" project of nanomaterials special focus of support; and in the "13th Five-Year Plan" of scientific and technological development, graphene research and development and industrialization is expected to dominate. The National Natural Science Foundation of China also attaches great importance to the basic research of graphene. In recent years, hundreds of research projects related to graphene have been supported every year. The total number of related projects has reached more than 1000. The State Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have also organized many investigations on graphene industry while discussing and promulgating major research plans for new materials.



In addition to support from the national level, local governments are also making great efforts in promoting the development of graphene industrialization. Earlier, Wuxi City of Jiangsu Province issued the Outline of Wuxi Graphene Industry Development Plan, actively promoting the division of labor and cooperation in graphene industry, resource sharing and regional linkage development, and then Wuxi will become a national graphene industry application demonstration base and an internationally competitive graphene industry development demonstration zone. Wuxi Graphene Industry Development Demonstration Zone, Wuxi Graphene Technology and Application Research and Development Center, Jiangsu Graphene Detection Technology Key Laboratory also unveiled recently.



In addition, the establishment of industry alliance accelerated the formation of graphene industry chain, innovation chain and value chain. On July 13, last year, 22 corporations engaged in graphene research, development and industrialization in the United Nations were sponsored by Tsinghua University, Institute of Metals, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing Kefu Nanotechnology Co., Ltd., Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Beijing Modern Huaqing Materials Science and Technology Development Center. The strategic alliance of graphene industry technology innovation was established with the support of Research Cooperation Promotion Association. In just over a year, the alliance has made remarkable achievements in promoting the development of industrialization: it has laid out four graphene industry innovation bases in Wuxi, Qingdao, Shenzhen and Ningbo; promoted the establishment of provincial graphene industry technology innovation strategic alliances in Jiangsu and Shandong provinces; launched China (Taizhou) graphene research and testing public service level Taiwan; China Graphene Standardization Committee was established and the world's first standard for defining and defining the key terms of graphene was issued, namely China Graphene No. 1 Standard Terms and Definitions of Graphene Materials.



In addition to policy support and industry's own efforts, the industrialization of graphene still needs financial support. Shi Dinghuan, counselor of the State Council and chairman of the Association of China Productivity Promotion Centers, said that innovation activities are far from enough, but also need financial and financial support to form a sound financial service system, otherwise innovation activities will become "rice-free cooking".



Li Yichun, secretary-general of the China Graphene Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance, also said: "When a technology develops into a mature stage and enters the industrialization channel, capital becomes particularly important." Gao Fei, executive vice president of Jinan Moxi New Material Technology Co., Ltd, told China Chemical Daily that graphene is a sunrise industry and is a very good investment choice in the long run. However, the graphene industry has just started, the large-scale commercial application has not yet started, and the profitability of the enterprise is very weak, which may be seen in the next two or three years. No return is not suitable for short-term investments. "Government investment is a good weathervane." He said, "governments in Wuxi, Ningbo, Qingdao and other places all invest heavily in graphene industry."



In order to further promote the industrialization of graphene, China's graphene industry investment and financing alliance has been formally established, aiming to accelerate the process of graphene industrialization by means of investment and financing innovation and strengthening the ability of synergistic innovation. Xie Zihao, president of Hangzhou Daohong New Material Fund, said that the China Graphene Industry Investment and Finance Alliance would set up an intra-alliance fund to optimize graphene projects, introduce professional investors and foster and support the healthy and rapid development of graphene enterprises.



Accelerating means: joint innovation of international cooperation



Although domestic industrialization has started, we should be soberly aware that the industrial revolution triggered by the application of graphene is in the preparatory period before dawn. Innovation and cooperation, application research and industrialization will be the dawn of breaking the dark. This is the consensus reached recently by the 2014 China International graphene Innovation Conference. The Ningbo Declaration on Graphene Innovation was born at the gathering of more than 1,000 graphene experts and business representatives from more than 20 countries and 360 institutions. The Declaration proposed that the graphene industry should focus on original innovation and open cooperation, actively participate in international exchanges and cooperation, make full use of global innovation resources, accelerate innovation breakthroughs in major products, and promote the internationalization of graphene products.



In recent years, the development of graphene technology in the world has shown a continuous warming trend of rapid progress. All countries are scrambling to seize the lead in this new round of high-tech competition. In 2013, the European union announced that it would include graphene as a new flagship technology project in the future. As a country with large graphite resources and manufacturing industry, China not only keeps pace with the world in graphene research, but also has huge market space in the application of graphene.



It is understood that both sides of the EU and China attach great importance to graphene and have made great progress. Both sides are competing in the field of graphene, but more complementary. The EU Flagship Graphene Program has 13 major directions. Although it covers almost all areas of graphene, its layout is more focused on basic and frontier areas, including the application of graphene in high-frequency electronics, sensors, flexible display and other fields. For graphene in energy storage batteries, touch display, heat dissipation, composite materials and other fields of industrial research, China's current commercial basis is better, more advantages. Therefore, strengthening cooperation and communication between the two sides can make up for each other's weaknesses, realize more effective allocation of resources, and accelerate the rapid and healthy development of graphene industry.



To this end, the graphene industry in China will jointly initiate the establishment of the International Graphene Innovation Alliance with the European Graphene Flagship Program Group and the Phantoms Foundation. Through the establishment of a public and non-governmental global graphene innovation service platform, the alliance will draw a blueprint for the strategic development of the global graphene industry and enhance international joint innovation. It plays an important role in promoting international industrial environment construction, such as bridge between technology and capital. It is reported that the headquarters of the alliance is expected to be located in China.



Zhang Jingan, chairman of the China Association for High-tech Development Zones, said that China's research and development in the field of graphene started relatively late, but developed relatively fast, with potential advantages and late-development advantages. Especially, the market space of many application fields of graphene is complementary to each other in China and in the global layout of graphene R&D and industrialization. Therefore, while promoting the development of graphene industry, it is particularly important to strengthen international cooperation.



Accelerating direction: breaking through bottleneck from application field



The industrialization of graphene is in full swing at present, but there is still no fundamental breakthrough in the application of the most important piece of gold before it can be refined.



Graphene is widely used in many fields, such as heat dissipation materials, lithium-ion materials, energy storage materials and so on. But experts point out that the most valuable applications should still be in the semiconductor field such as transistors, high-frequency components, sensors and so on. Once breakthroughs have been made in large-scale fabrication of wafer-size graphene single crystal films, graphene will hopefully replace silicon as the core material of the new generation of semiconductor devices, bringing about revolutionary changes in electronic information technology. But this is a huge problem for the whole world. It may take more than ten years or even decades of efforts. Moreover, the financial and technological threshold of this field is very high.



As for the earliest industrial applications of graphene, experts believe that graphene powder may be used in the form of high-end additives in lithium-ion batteries, coatings, inks, plastics and other fields. For example, the application of graphene in lithium-ion batteries can solve the problem that the energy density and power density of traditional lithium-ion batteries are difficult to obtain simultaneously, so the application of graphene in lithium-ion batteries is a very promising direction. Graphene can be used in many aspects of lithium batteries, such as graphene composite anode materials, such as silicon-carbon composite anode materials; it can also be used as conductive additives for lithium batteries cathode materials; it can also be coated on aluminum foil collector to form graphene functional coated aluminum foil.



However, all of these are in the "progressive" or even "future tense". In recent years, great progress has been made in the large-scale preparation of graphene powder. At present, the cost has been reduced from several thousand yuan per gram to several yuan per gram or even less than one yuan per gram in mass production. Although it has not passed the test of product homogeneity and stability, it provides a great possibility for its application in the downstream.



In contrast, the application of graphene in the downstream is lagging behind. At present, the biggest bottleneck of graphene industry is still in the downstream application, and there is no field to achieve large-scale application of graphene. Therefore, industry insiders pointed out that as soon as possible to achieve a breakthrough in one or two downstream applications of graphene is the key to the current graphene industrialization.



"With big orders, there may be development." Liu Zhaoping, a researcher at Ningbo Institute of Material Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, told China Chemical Daily that the graphene market is confused and there are many problems facing the industry. Among them, the most important one is the research and development of applied technology. If this problem is clear, the production of graphene can meet the demand. Graphene products. Gao Fei also told reporters: "At present, the domestic graphene scale preparation technology is developing rapidly, the cost problem can be solved by technological innovation, scale effect, but how to add graphene to the product perfectly and effectively improve product performance, this is the most important." "Graphene application research should be grounded to the gas, industrialized and minimally modified to existing production lines," he said. Gao Fei also said that the lack of communication between production and R&D enterprises and downstream enterprises, lack of effective docking between R&D and enterprise applications of scientific research units, excessive emphasis on basic scientific research and too few practical technical personnel in the industry, all of these are constraining the further development of the graphene industry.



In addition, the cost, quality and stability of graphene powder or film product itself still have great room for improvement. Wu Ling, director of the National Semiconductor Lighting Engineering Research and Development and Industry Alliance, said that the LED industry is developing rapidly at present, but whether the LED can eventually enter the homes of ordinary people depends on its price. ITO on LEDs now uses indium, and graphene, if it's ready to replace it, will be a big customer of graphene, at least in terms of improving the efficiency of semiconductor lighting.



Of course, the industry is still optimistic about the future of graphene. In a lecture this year, Professor Andre Geim, the discoverer and Nobel Prize Laureate of graphene, suggested that within three to five years graphene would have amazing applications. At the International Graphene Innovation Conference, more than 10 foreign organizations, including CVD Equipment Company of the United States, ICN2 of Spain, Nike of Germany, National Graphene Research Institute of the United Kingdom and Graphenea of Spain, and more than 20 domestic units, such as Mexican Science and Technology, Xiamen Kena, Shanghai Xinchi and Metal Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, displayed their latest achievements and achievements. Products. According to recent reports, a number of research results have begun to touch the application level, the application of these research results, so that consumers on Flexible Smart watches, foldable smartphone tablet computers, 15 minutes to charge up and the endurance of 500 kilometers of electric vehicle batteries and other graphene revolution may take The change is more full of expectation. The age of graphene will not be far away.