CREATING TRANSPARENCY IN THE GLOBAL GRAPHENE MARKET

Assume you are a customer interested in upgrading your current technology with graphene materials. For example, if you work in the construction business, you can improve concrete strength by 35% and cut cure time in half or more by adding merely 30 grammes of graphene per metric tonne. If you work in the highway industry, adding as little as 0.2 wt% graphene oxide to bitumen can improve road durability due to an excellent moisture barrier.

Now please understand that graphene is not a single material, but a family of materials produced through various methods, each with unique structural and chemical properties. Since hundreds of companies around the world sell materials containing various kinds of carbon material, label them as "graphene," those in the industry who seek to improve their products by including graphene may not be able to compare and select the suitable material.

Nevertheless, you purchase graphene material from a vendor under the presumption that it will meet all of your requirements, either because you have unwavering faith in the vendor or because you lack formal knowledge of the technical specifications of graphene material. Wouldn't it be a nightmare if you did not see a consistent improvement in your product because the supplier could not provide graphene of consistent quality?

Even if you consider characterizing the material on your own to cross check the technical specification given by the seller, you will probably not go through that procedure to determine whether the material you receive meets the criteria or not since a comprehensive characterization of a graphene sample costs a lot ($15-25,000 - per sample). Consequently, it is extremely difficult for customers to determine whether their graphene supplier is reliable and capable of producing the same quality of graphene on a large scale.

The Graphene Council plays a significant role here by providing transparency to customers on how to connect with trusted graphene partners through their “The Verified Graphene Producer?” program. Recently, the United Kingdom-based Levidian passed a stringent evaluation to earn the official Verified Graphene Producer? designation.

I am sure you are probably wondering how this program works.

The Verified Graphene Producer Program is the only process that entails 3rd party in-person inspections of graphene production facilities to determine the type of raw material utilized, the graphene manufacturing process, and the quality and safety of the product until it is sent to the customer.

The experts from The Graphene Council take a random sample of this material from the manufacturing process and characterized by tests such as Raman, TEM, SEM, XPS, and AFM at world class labs (like the National Physical Laboratory in the UK) to ensure that the graphene meets the technical specifications set by the ISO definition for graphene and as described by the manufacturer. If all the criteria are met, the Graphene Council grants the respective producer the status of Verified Graphene Producer.

The Graphene Council’s verifies that LOOP system which is capable of producing of 300 tonnes of high-quality pristine graphene per year (and hydrogen) by plasma technology deployed anywhere in the world produces Levidian graphene to the same standard as the LOOPs located in Levidian’s Cambridge headquarters.

This certification is a significant accomplishment in generating transparency on the global graphene market, not only for Levidian but also for its UAE-based partner company, Zero Carbon Ventures. It is the ultimate validation of Levidian and Zero Carbon Ventures' capacity to deliver commercial-scale graphene materials that have been independently verified.

Other than Levidian, companies such as Kyorene, Graphene One/Armor Guys, Versarien Inc., Hydro Graph Clean Power, and Ceylon Graphene Technologies has also received this reorganization.

It is not only the vendor's responsibility, but also the customer's, to conduct a thorough background check to determine whether the graphene material they are purchasing from the seller is trustworthy. The graphene market has already passed the commercialization tipping point; however, a transparent collaboration between graphene producers and customers is required to reach the commercialization plateau.

In closing, I'd want to stress that the next time you consider using graphene to improve the performance of your existing technology, make sure you choose the correct producer, and the “Verified Graphene Producer” status is one way to do so.