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[fuji99] 29/11/2018 15:39

I would add that the Australian study proves that restrictions in graphene applications will be flagged up the more we integrate this material into various industries. So this is where Nanene could be a mix with limitless applications leading to even higher barriers of entry. Others will of course supply graphene, but for say building industries, motorways etc. while VRS could supply to almost every industry plus the more demanding ones (medical equipment, silicon for the semis, etc.).
IMO the "decantation process" of good (limitless usage) and bad graphene (restricted) will occur with time, which will automatically put VRS as the leader in this sector.

[superg1] 29/11/2018 15:36

Just for the record, in all the papers we looked at over the years not one mentioned silicon problems.

Off the top of my head I don't record seeing silicon mentioned as an impurity in anyones products.

I can't recall the NGI, UOM or various others mentioning it either.

They were talking electrics. For strength few layer and vvarious other aspects are key.

Serratia discovered few layer is key for concrete too but to do with the curing process.

WMG found few layer to be the key to the loss of performance during the battery recharge cycles.

Also a bit odd as there is plenty of chat of battery breakthroughs by combining silicon with graphite and graphene.

[fuji99] 29/11/2018 15:27

Grabster -
Please bear in mind that Nanene was first launched in 2017.
So I am almost 100% certain it is not from VRS's otherwise it would be announced in a RNS as a "collaboration deal with a semi-conductor company". So I assume nobody from the semis bought it to integrate it into their silicon.

However, that was only one application specific to semis (amongst so many).
We don't know who was supplying this "grahene" and I think this is maybe a good opportunity for VRS to supply nanene samples for the manufacturers of the silicon that was tested in that oz lab. for comparison.
This could be a huge hit for VRS if is comes out as the purest mix.
In materials the success is all about the right process with its relevant
tightly held programme. This is what makes the difference with other suppliers of normal "graphene". In fact you can buy it on line for $200/300/g and nobody knows what it is.

[mryl] 29/11/2018 15:24

So according to this article it is vital to use high purity graphite (>99.9%) to get graphene or GO that is free from silicon impurities.

Using a low purity graphite precursor and trying to remove the silicon afterwards does not work.

They found that GO made from high-purity graphite performed much better that GO from low-purity graphite for humidity sensors, and had superior capacitive performance and higher electrical conductivity.

[mryl] 29/11/2018 15:18

"Oxidative exfoliation of graphite...was used here and requires several chemical treatment steps any, or all of which, could contribute to the observed silicon-based contamination. However, the impurity was also present in solvent-exfoliated graphene layers prepared by bath sonication of graphite powder in a very pure exfoliating solvent. Solvent exfoliation of graphite uses a solvent (ca. N,N-dimethylformamide) for the exfoliation process to give graphene in the liquid phase (monolayer and few layers) without any additional oxidation step. This showed that silicon-based compounds are ubiquitous contamination in graphene-based materials when using top–down production approaches and is not caused solely by reagents or particular chemical processes. Therefore, the silicon contamination originated from the graphite precursor.

"Graphite particles in the purity range of 80–98% are typically refined using only floatation. For purities >98%, additional refinement steps are carried out following floatation32. This provides two options to eliminate the contamination: (a) purification of the exfoliated materials and (b) employing purer graphite precursors.

As important as the removal of this contamination on the surface of GO is, it proved to be an almost impossible task. Various methods were evaluated including extensive washing of the as-prepared GO material with boiling 5 M NaOH. However, the silicon-based contaminants proved to be persistent and appeared to become more widely dispersed across the surface. Purification with such a strong basic solution resulted in an irreversible agglomeration and restacking of GO sheets. Consequently, the impurities are confined between the layers and remain following the purification process. Even chemical–reduction of GO proved to be unsuccessful in removing the impurities effectively. This, however, was not surprising as silicon–oxygen-rich compounds (i.e. silica) are typically considered to be corrosion-resistant materials and the only reagent that can effectively etch them is fluoride. However, even using NH4F to remove the impurities proved to be unsuccessful, and this also resulted in an irreversible agglomeration of GO layers. Generally, increasing the ionic strength or decreasing the pH of GO suspensions results in loss of the surface charge and restacking of GO particles then occurs. Moreover, the set-up and the process parameters that need to be optimised for the removal of silicon impurities are complex and hazardous and result in a significant increase in the cost of production.

A better approach is therefore to improve the quality and purity of the feedstock and to avoid the use of inexpensive and contaminated feedstocks, which are now typically used in non-research applications. Evaluation of various GO produced from graphite with a range of purities (98% to 99.9999%) revealed that purities of ≥99.9% result in almost contaminant-free GO. Interestingly, a commercially obtained GO material, which was tested as a control, showed very significant silicon-based contamination. Furthermore, EDS spectra of GO derived from graphite with a purity of ≥99.9% showed no detectable silicon-based contamination."

[mryl] 29/11/2018 15:13

Read the article, first it is about silicon impurities and not about oxygen content since they were testing GO and not pure graphene. So not Nanene related in that sense.
However, we know from the Nanene TDS that there is no silicon impurity so all good :)

[club sandwich] 29/11/2018 15:11

Talking about flying cars this popped up in my email... I'm a Patreon of the Royal Institute, and so got early access to this video (from 1983) before it was released...

How Jets Are Used for Attitude Control - Christmas Lectures with Leonard Maunder

[loglorry1] 29/11/2018 15:05

@superg is right. Graphene inks are around 10% graphene



This means the 100Kg order was probably about 10Kg in graphene sales.

If the sale price of graphene as some say here is $100K/kg that would be a $1M order for Haydale which obviously it was not since it was a non-regulatory RNS REACH.

If the sale price of graphene that was used was more inline with every other producers it will be more like $150/kg so around $1500 sized order. This is no doubt why it was not a material order and didn't require a full RNS.

Unfortunately for @superg it does mean that even a 100Kg order of graphene ink if sold by VRS using their new machines will only probably bring in around $2,000.

The numbers you guys band around, like a $200bn market are from fantasy land it seems.

[loglorry1] 29/11/2018 15:00

Group accounts are out next week. To get them done 2-DTech accounts (where graphene sales are booked) must have been completed. Yet they have not yet been filed at Companies House and are late compared to previous years.

One can only assume they are being held back for some reason. I suspect the reason is that they'll show next to zero in the way of graphene sales.

[superg1] 29/11/2018 14:52

Scrutable

Just saying 100kg of ink isn’t 100kg of graphene, it depends on the loading. VRS ink is up to 10% graphene loadings.

100 kg is under 2 days for the VRS ink production kit due shortly.

[grabster] 29/11/2018 14:49

fuji - that's an assertion. I would welcome knowing how/why Nanene is exempt from this problem. Is the silicon contamination problem specific to certain production methods used by certain makers that do or don't include Versarien?

[fuji99] 29/11/2018 14:39

Gabster - Meaning that the solution is nanene, the purest.

"Now a study published in Nature Communications identifies silicon contamination as the cause of disappointing results and details how to produce higher performing, pure graphene". = NANENE
All this means VRS has already a huge lead on any prospective competition.

[club sandwich] 29/11/2018 14:17

“This is business and it’s about getting a result,”

couldn't agree more. so where are the orders for VRS?

[grabster] 29/11/2018 14:10

.. a study published in Nature Communications identifies silicon contamination as the cause of disappointing results and details how to produce higher performing, pure graphene.

.. “We found high levels of silicon contamination in commercially available graphene, with massive impacts on the material’s performance,”

.. tests found that silicon present in natural graphite, the raw material used to make graphene, was not being fully removed when processed.

“We believe this contamination is at the heart of many seemingly inconsistent reports on the properties of graphene and perhaps many other atomically thin 2D materials,”






This relates to which method(s) of graphene production?

[ellissj] 29/11/2018 14:09

Similar echos here ? But in typical neill win/win fashion, both UoM and UoC becames shareholders in vrs. As has gnano. Aimo Best ellis.

"Grabbing university startups on the cheap has become a sector sport. Last month the AIM-listed carbide manufacturer Versarien took a majority stake in graphene-based ink product developer Cambridge Graphene – but it paid just £170,000. This early bailout by the latter's shareholders must form the lowest-ever sales price for any recent Cambridge spinout company.

Whether it signals the final chapter in UK University enthusiasm for graphene remains to be seen. Owned by its management and Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of the University of Cambridge, the spinout may help Versarien in its quest to "commercialise the market opportunities for graphene both in the UK and internationally".

Neill Ricketts, chief executive of Versarien, earlier hinted that his firm was happy to mop up graphene-related assets in the UK for bargain prices. Back in April 2014 it had bought 2-DTech, a Manchester University spinout that had developed the capability to produce graphene using a chemical vapour deposition process. Versarien paid only £440,000 in total."

[ellissj] 29/11/2018 14:05

Great article anley, these bits stood out for me. Best ellis.

..“It was from a disabled pensioner in Ireland who was calling to say thank you,” he recalls. “She said: 'Dana has transformed my life’.
“She invested £400 in 1995 and was getting a cheque for £720,000. She was able to move to a new bungalow with wheelchair access and to go to Australia to see her grandchild for the first time.

“There are a lot of people whose lives you have completely changed,’ she told me. That really captured it for me. It really showed me what this means.....” 

"...And what I negotiated is the best price paid for any independent UK oil exploration company.”
Dana was set up with just $300,000 (£185,000) by Cross in 1994, taking its name from the Celtic goddess of fertility and listing in Dublin before moving to London two years later.
It had instant success drilling 20 wells in western Siberia. Then Dana made an Indonesian discovery which it swapped for assets in the North Sea, which still accounts for 80pc of its 50,000-barrels-a-day production and 300m-barrel reserves.
“When we put the company together, the shares were 1p and we have many shareholders who have made over 1,000 times their original investment,” says Cross. “My record will stand for itself. Show me another business that has made a bigger return for its shareholders, because I’m not aware of one.”

[ellissj] 29/11/2018 13:36

Appears Nasa leading evtol development in usa ! Best ellis.

"NASA Launches Urban Air Mobility Grand ChallengeOn Nov. 1-2, more than 240 representatives from government, industry and academia gathered in Seattle, Washington, to attend an industry day marking the launch of NASA’s Urban Air Mobility Grand Challenge plan.

Over the next few years, NASA will host a series of operational demonstration programs that will address known UAM challenges that will allow participants to learn from each other and collectively “raise the water level” together, explained Dr. Jaiwon Shin, NASA Associate Administrator, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD).

At the Industry Day, NASA and FAA representatives discussed the opportunities and challenges of the first Grand Challenge (GC-1), which is scheduled to commence in late 2020...."

[ellissj] 29/11/2018 13:32

Nasa project involving ntpt here ! Best ellis

"Composites Automation LLC (CA), our academic partner University of Delaware – Center for Composite Materials (UD-CCM) are teaming up in this STTR Phase II project to evaluate automated tape placement (ATP) processing of thin-ply composites, including material and process development, creation of a modeling foundation capturing thin-ply placement, test panel fabrication and mechanical performance evaluation. Keys to successful transition of standard ply to thin-ply ATP processing, is the ability to fabricate uniform high fiber volume and fiber distribution composite parts at or below 1% void content

Phase II will investigate other material options beyond the North Thin Ply Technology (NTPT) material investigated in Phase I, evaluate their microstructure and down-select for further investigation. Our ATP robotic system will be reconfigured to include a material handling system that eliminates tape geometry changes during placement of thin-ply material. A key innovation will be the development of a comprehensive modeling approach capturing the complete placement, debulking and autoclave cure process for thin-ply material addressing the critical challenges found in Phase I. This will allow definition of material requirements and optimization of the placement conditions such as speed and head pressure for any thin ply material, recommend the number of debulking steps for thicker geometry parts and provide cure cycle guidance in particular for complex geometry components. The comprehensive software will evaluate the sensitivity of incoming tape material quality on production rate and performance, and enable a virtual modeling environment for thin-ply material. We will demonstrate the approach by building and testing standard coupons as well as complex geometry components to validate and transition the technology to NASA.

Potential NASA Applications 

NASA has shown interest in applying thin-ply technology in various programs including the Composite Cryotank Technologies and Demonstration (CCTD) project. The Boeing Company was contracted to design, analyze, and manufacture the large composite cryotanks for testing at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. An automated placement system was utilized to place thick and thin prepreg plies with final consolidation using out-of-autoclave processing (OOA). The approach has the potential to reduce cost by 25% and weight by 30 percent compared to existing aluminum-lithium propellant tanks. Other applications where weight reduction and improved durability is key are currently being considered by NASA.

Potential Non-NASA Applications 

The general approach and specific technologies developed in this SBIR can be applied to other military and commercial applications (aerospace, automotive, wind etc.). These applications may require additional material testing and R&D to meet certifications and particular application requirements and will be evaluated on a market basis."

[bootie64] 29/11/2018 13:32

Good to see that one of our collaboration partners Advanced Insulation has acquired a specialist South American insulation jacket manufacturer Isoremov in a deal which paves the way for growth.



Isoremov supplies insulation jackets to the renewable, sugar cane and ethanol markets in Brazil.


Advanced Insulation, which has its headquarters in Hardwicke, is already a leading manufacturer of technical coatings and fire protection materials usually associated with the oil, gas, petrochemicals and LNG industry.








Isoremov
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On 18th Oct Versarien announced it signed a collaboration agreement with Advanced Insulation Limited




According to Advanced Insulation the wider insulation market was worth $45 billion in 2017 and growth is expected to be six per cent this year alone and South America is a major market.

This has to be another great opportunity for Versarien !

[jointer13] 29/11/2018 13:23

a bit of positivity...wonder why this has just come out

Bureau plays part in high level deal in Shandong Province
November 29, 2018 at 12:40 pm


Bristol and West of England China Bureau was instrumental in setting up a meeting in Bath which helped lay the foundations for a deal which will see a major UK manufacturer open a factory in Shandong – China’s third fastest-growing province.
Cheltenham-based Versarien PLC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Jinan High Tech Financial Investment Fund for a joint venture to manufacture the UK company’s graphene products in Shandong’s Jinan Innovation Zone.
Graphene is a cutting-edge engineering material, lightweight, thin, flexible, conductive and incredibly lightweight. It is used in electrical and photonics circuits.
Bristol West of England China Bureau Chief Executive Dianne Francombe said: “We helped facilitate the visit of the first delegation from Jinan to Bath back in 2016. There was an aspiration from the Provincial Capital to connect the cities through their historic springs.

“The delegation was keen to discover how the Roman Baths are managed and marketed. The connection led to a second visit. It is fantastic to see yet another example of a UK company reaching out to China to take advantage of the enormous trade opportunities. This agreement builds on another high-level deal we are facilitating in Shandong Province.”
BANES Councillor Martin Veal is a former Cabinet member and vice chairman of Bath Tourism. He is also an appointed advisor to the Mayor of Jinan and various districts. He attended the recent Bureau Pow Wow networking event held at the Century Casino in Bath.
He said: “Bristol and West of England China Bureau was instrumental in setting up the first Jinan visit which led to my involvement and subsequently introducing Versarien to the Jinan Innovation Zone.
“The MoU is the result of two years’ hard work. It is great to be able to combine our business connections in the West of England and help build stronger connections with China.”

[axotyl] 29/11/2018 13:13

"I shudder to imagine electric VTOL in the hands of amateurs - and I fear it will happen soon" - Shavian

It's happening now, with drones, despite attempts at regulation in the UK by the CAA. Amateurs don't have a clue about the rules governing their operation.