TAGS: Polymer Reinforcement
A team of researchers (Elena Tatarova, Júlio Henriques, Luís Lemos Alves and Bruno Gonçalves) of the Plasma Engineering Laboratory of group N-PRiME with Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear develop a process to fabricate free-standing graphene using plasma technology, at much lower production cost than the other existing market solutions.
They are granted by the US Patent Office the first international patent on the “Process, reactor and system for fabrication of free-standing two-dimensional nanostructures using plasma technology”.
Carbon-based Precursors to High-quality Graphene
The versatile plasma-based single-step process allows the continuous large-scale conversion of cheap carbon-based precursors (such as bioethanol and greenhouse gases) into high-value, high-quality graphene and derivatives (e.g., N-doped graphene) with tailored properties and high-yield (40 mg/min), at ambient conditions.
The stream of a precursor and an inert gas is subjected to an intense microwave plasma that decomposes the precursor into its atomic and molecular constituents. The temperature and the flow of the constituents are then carefully controlled, via the combined action of a cooling device and the exposure to infrared radiation, within the discharge tube featuring a tailored geometry.
The nucleation of the precursor constituents occurs downstream, resulting in the production of floating nanostructures with the prescribed morphological, structural, and functional properties.
Related Read: 2022 State of Conductive Polymer & Additives Innovation
The patent is an outcome of project PEGASUS (Plasma Enabled and Graphene Allowed Synthesis of Unique nanoStructures) that embodies the plasma-driven controllable design of matter at the atomic scale level to develop a disruptive technology and a proof-of-concept machine for the manufacturing of consistent high-quality batches graphene and derivatives at a large-scale (3 other national patents granted).
The invention targets graphene users and consumers developing new products and devices, for applications as varied as improved mechanical properties in composite materials, jet inks, metamaterials, energy storage and conversion devices (e.g., electrodes for supercapacitors, AC filtering lines), materials for hydrogen streams purification & storage and negative dielectric permittivity materials.
Source: ipfn