New low-cost graphene production to revolutionise engineering applications

项目描述：石墨烯是单层碳原子，比金刚石硬，比钢硬，比铝轻，导电性比铜好，甚至氦原子也不能通过。它有大量的潜在用途，但大规模部署的主要限制是生产成本高。这在很大程度上是由于目前的方法在较长时间内少量生产。最近，工业合作伙伴Blast Log Ltd与Garrard Jones Engineering Ltd共同开发了一种新的工艺，使用间歇式闪速热解[1]，从可再生生物质资源中大规模自下而上合成石墨烯。这种新型制造工艺的高能量输入、快速加热动力学和连续性提供了一种颠覆性的纳米技术，可以生产出比当前市场成本至少便宜一个数量级的材料。该奖学金的目的是帮助优化这种新的闪速热解生产工艺和石墨烯产品，并确定将这种材料开发成商业产品并在当前市场上销售是否可行。一个具有巨大潜力的具体例子是建筑业。全球混凝土产量每年超过100亿吨，约占温室气体排放量的10%。因此，混凝土行业面临着减少碳足迹的巨大压力。石墨烯已被证明可以显著提高混凝土的强度和耐久性。这将减少新建筑以及维修和维护期间的材料使用，可能减少5%的温室气体排放。传统的石墨烯生产路线没有竞争力，但这种新的生产路线有可能使石墨烯在混凝土中的使用在经济上可行。因此，该项目旨在进一步开发这些新型低成本石墨烯材料，并证明其作为功能添加剂在大批量应用中的实用性和可行性。将研究的应用途径包括：(i)用作混凝土添加剂以增加强度（从而降低二氧化碳排放），直接销售给预拌厂和其他最终用户；（ii）使用石墨烯产品作为机油添加剂，在合成油中形成稳定的分散体，以证明提高燃油效率和减少磨损的效果；（iii）用作添加剂，形成耐用，耐磨的聚合物复合材料，用于汽车应用，如轮胎。为此，该项目将优化基础闪蒸热解制造工艺，并探索不同的可持续碳原料，以进一步提高石墨烯最终产品的质量、纯度、均匀性和剥离能力。如果时间允许，该项目还将探索将直接化学功能化方法整合到闪蒸热解制造过程中。产品将通过光谱（拉曼，XPS），热方法（TGA, TGA- ms）和最先进的纳米级分析技术（TEM， EDX， FIB， EELS）仔细分析其结构和化学特性。

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).