Graphene's commercial success depends upon selecting the appropriate graphene material for the intended use.

Graphene has been widely touted as the super material of the 21st Century, with the potential to transform tens of thousands of products across 45+ industries. Huge sums have been invested in graphene production capacity – particularly in China. So, what’s delaying the Graphene Revolution?

The primary reason U.S. industry has not yet more widely adopted graphene is a mistaken belief that it “is all hype and doesn’t deliver”. This skepticism can be forgiven. Virtually every graphene manufacturer makes attention grabbing claims that have largely not been translated into product performance enhancements. For example, most graphene manufacturers claim that graphene is 200 times stronger than steel. In industries’ experience, however, most commercially available "graphene" added to increase a product’s mechanical strength makes it brittle.

The disconnect between potential industrial users and graphene producers is the fact that graphene is not a single, one size fits all material. Graphene refers to a family of materials spanning a wide spectrum, from graphitic black powder to very high-quality real graphene. Each material has different physical properties which determine its suitability for use in specific applications. Graphene’s critical properties are (1) surface area size, (2) number of atomic layers (thinness) and (3) level of surface and edge defects or functional group contamination. It is the simultaneous presence of large (tens of microns) surface area, 5 or fewer atomic layers and absence of defects – with a strong crystalline structure – that delivers graphene’s potential as an additive material. Conversely, the absence of one or more of these critical properties negatively impacts performance.

The use of graphene to improve an end product should be correlated to the physical properties of each type of graphene. For example, the world’s most widely utilized graphene material – graphene oxide – works well to make asphalt and concrete stronger, tougher and more durable with better resistance to cracking, moisture, heat and aging. But because of graphene oxide’s oxygen functional groups, disrupted sp² lattice and structural defects, it is incapable of delivering, among other things, high electrical conductivity and thermal management. It is also does not confer tensile strength in many applications, including ballistic protection, drones, EMI shielding and high-performance composites.

The broad adoption of graphene by industry requires the appropriate graphene material to be used in a specific application. Once this happens, the Graphene Revolution will be unleashed and tens of thousands of products transformed. This presentation will present data quantifying different graphene material structures and properties and survey the graphene production landscape.