New low-cost graphene production to revolutionise engineering applications

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Project Description: Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms which is harder than diamond, tougher than steel, lighter than aluminium, conducts electricity better than copper and even helium atoms can't pass through it. It has a vast number of potential uses but the main throttle on large scale deployment of it is the high cost of production. This is largely down to the current methods producing small quantities over extended periods of time. Recently industrial collaborators Blast Log Ltd, together with Garrard Jones Engineering Ltd, have developed a novel process using batch flash pyrolysis [1] for the bottom-up synthesis of graphene from renewable biomass sources at large scale. The high energy inputs at fast heating kinetics and continuous nature of this novel fabrication process provide a disruptive nanotechnology that can produce a material at least an order of magnitude cheaper than the current market cost. The aim of this studentship is to help optimise both this new flash pyrolysis production process and the graphene product and to determine whether it is feasible to develop the material into a commercial product and sell into the current market. A specific example with great potential is in construction. Global concrete production amounts to over 10 billion tonnes per year, and is responsible for ca. 10% of greenhouse gas emissions. The concrete industry is therefore under immense pressure to reduce its carbon footprint. Graphene has been shown to significantly improve concrete strength and durability [2]. This will enable reductions in material use for new construction, and during repair and maintenance, potentially amounting to 5% of greenhouse gas emissions. Conventional graphene production routes are uncompetitive, but this new production route has the potential to make the use of graphene in concrete economically feasible. The studentship therefore aims to develop these novel low-cost graphene materials further and demonstrate their utility and feasibility as functional additives in high-volume applications. Application avenues that will be investigated include: (i) use as a concrete additive to increase strength (and thus lower carbon dioxide emissions), selling it direct to ready mix plants and other end users; (ii) use as a motor oil additive by using the graphene product to create a stable dispersion in synthetic oil with the aim of demonstrating fuel efficiency increases and wear reduction effects and; (iii) use as an additive to form a durable, hard wearing polymer composite material for say automotive applications such as tyres. To this end, the project will optimize the underpinning flash pyrolisation fabrication process and explore different sustainable carbon feedstocks to further boost graphitic quality, purity, homogeneity, and exfoliation capability of the final graphene products. Time-permitting, the project will also explore the integration of direct chemical functionalisation approaches into the flash pyrolysis fabrication process. Products will be carefully analyzed in terms of their structural and chemical characteristics via spectroscopy (Raman, XPS), thermal methods (TGA, TGA-MS) and state-of-the-art nanoscale analytical techniques (TEM, EDX, FIB, EELS).