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Polymer Reinforcement
Black Swan Graphene Inc. (Black Swan) announces that the latest version of its GraphCore™001 graphene nanoplatelet material, Graphcore enhances the composite abrasion resistance by a range of 60% to 80%, when used as an additive in Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU).
The company had previously communicated an already enviable enhancement performance of 45% in TPU with a 1% loading ratio (amount of additive material added to a composite material, relative to the amount of matrix material).
Offers Increased Thermal Conductivity for TPU
TPU is a thermoplastic elastomer combining some properties of both plastic and rubber. It is tough, flexible, durable, and resistant to abrasion as well as to oils and lubricants. This unique combination of properties makes TPU ideally suitable for various applications including automotive, sports equipment, textile coatings, and mobile handsets.
Simon Marcotte, president and chief executive officer of Black Swan Graphene, commented, “
Today’s performance results serve as a reminder that graphene could revolutionize the enormous polymer industry.”
Marcotte further added, “
In addition to improving abrasion resistance, graphene offers meaningful benefits such as weight reduction, cost savings, enhanced precision, improved gas permeability, and increased thermal conductivity, all of which can improve existing markets and pave the way for new applications.”
The manufacture of the composites, being the Graphcore-enhanced TPU, and the subsequent testing, were carried out independently at the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) located at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom.
Market Perspectives of Graphene Materials
The precise type of TPU selected for the trials is currently used in mobile equipment and extruded sheets, which are generally used in many industries from packaging to transportation and construction materials.
The composites were manufactured via a masterbatch and then moulded to carry out the tests, which were based on loading ratios of 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5%. The abrasion tests correspond to norm ISO 5470 -1:2016 - Taber abrasion. Three thousand (3,000) cycles were carried out using standard abrasive wheels with 1,000 grams of weight per wheel. The weight loss was recorded after each 1,000 cycles.
Between each 1,000 cycles, the wheels were abraded with the standard sandpaper to 50 cycles; sandpaper was changed for the start of each new test. The current plastic additive market (and not the plastic market itself) is estimated to be approximately USD $40 billion per year.
In its 2021 report, The Graphene Council estimated that the potential annual graphene requirements, when combining all different types of polymers at a 5% loading ratio, would be 12.5 million tons of graphene.
Source: Black Swan Graphene