Nanotechnology Now - Press Release: UK Company announces collaboration agreement with leading Plasma Reactor manufacturer at “Graphene 2012”

Home > Press > UK Company announces collaboration agreement with leading Plasma Reactor manufacturer at “Graphene 2012”

Abstract:
Haydale, a wholly owned subsidiary of British company Innovative Carbon Limited, today announces that they have reached a collaboration agreement with leading German Plasma reactor manufacturer, Diener electronic GmbH & Co (Diener). The unique Split-Plasma reactor will be built jointly under the arrangement that will allow both partners to market the machine as part of the commercialisation of the Haydale Split-Plasma nano materials to be sold under the brand HDPlas™ (www.hdplas.com ).

UK Company announces collaboration agreement with leading Plasma Reactor manufacturer at “Graphene 2012”

UK | Posted on April 11th, 2012

The major players in this industry have gathered at the Graphene 2012 Graphene Flagship International Conference in Brussels this week. Haydale, based in South Wales, is exhibiting its collaboratively produced prototype range of Graphene enabled materials and intermediate components. These include transparent conductive membranes, Graphene loaded polymer pellets and Graphene loaded sprayable barrier paint. Haydale's unique patented plasma based technology enables the scaleable, dry, environmentally friendly, exfoliation and purification of single and few layer friable Graphene containing powders known as Graphene Nano Platelets (GNPs) from mined graphite crystals.

Representatives of Innovative Carbon and Haydale are present in Brussels to discuss the licensing of laboratory and production scale patented Diener/Haydale NanoPlas Plasma Reactors (www.plasma.de ) that can be purpose built to purify, functionalise and decorate a wide range of nano particles.

Haydale now offers a range of GNPs and other nano materials to the open market under the HDPlas™ brand (www.hdplas.com). Haydale has a customer portfolio of more than 100 major Global Blue Chip companies, Universities and research institutions. Haydale's agent in North America for HDPlas™ plasma processed nano structures is Cheaptubes Inc. (www.cheaptubes.com).

To stimulate further collaboration with leading industrial players and to demonstrate the disperseability of its branded HDPlas™ friable functionalised GNPs, Haydale will also donate one hundred samples of its nano powders to research students and industrial researchers. Haydale's team of scientists and engineers will be available at Graphene 2012 to help, advise and discuss bulk supply, potential applications and collaborative exploitation opportunities.

Critically, organisations can now use the HDPlas™ product range for collaborative product prototyping and analysis. Haydale offers expertise in running pilot trials to evaluate the effect their friable GNPs have on the clients' materials and products and, crucially, assessing their suitability for large scale production. The key to subsequent take up is to know that commercial quantities will be then available.

Haydale, to meet anticipated demand for its HDPlas™ range of Nano materials, are currently engaged in fitting out a new purpose built "state of the art" nano safe commercial production facility and nano safe laboratory analysis and characterisation suite. Haydale is now able to supply HDPlas™ from stock in grams or kilos and is ready and able to take orders for tonnes to agreed delivery dates.

"We acknowledge that GNPs, Graphene and micro graphite are not magic powders and their ease of use and potential, similar to Carbon Nano Tubes, is real but can be the victim of market hype. From our detailed and exhaustive research we know that materials in the nano scale are notoriously difficult and challenging to effectively disperse and bond within a target component or matrix. The trick is to balance the complexities of utilising particles with massive surface areas along with the precise nano surface chemical engineering of such particles that is required to achieve the desired dispersal/percolation levels and rheology necessary. Getting this right enables materials like Graphene to be effectively exploited and Haydale is equipped to meet these challenges" says Business Development Director Ian Walters.

Commenting on the collaboration, Christof Diener said:
"Diener, the company I founded in 1993, is delighted to create an association with Haydale and help launch this exciting new technology onto the market. Their process is unique and the results obtained have been excellent. We at Diener are really excited to become a part of this cutting edge patented technology. The market is looking for ways of using the new wonder material Graphene and we believe this technology is the effective route. Our investment continues with another factory of 4,500 sq metres, and we now have 100 specialist engineers and technicians to meet the increase demand."

####

About Haydale Limited
Innovative Carbon Limited (“ICL”) was formed in April 2010 to acquire Haydale Limited (“Haydale”) a specialist Research and Development business in South Wales. Prior to the purchase Haydale had developed the ability to treat nano scale carbon powders. The operation, with strong links with a number of leading UK Universities, had spent 7 years proving the concept and developing potential customer leads for a revolutionary way of cleaning, size reducing/de-agglomerating and surface engineering nano particles. ICL has since invested heavily in the technology, which is now ready for market.

The Haydale Split Plasma method has been designed to enable the take up of nano carbons and other nano powders as functional fillers. The barriers that Haydale has overcome in respect of GNPs are the same as for Carbon Nano Tubes (“CNTs”) where the plasma process performs these fundamental actions:

• Remove contamination: Fullerene powders suffer from undesirable production residues such as amorphous carbon, and residues from production catalysts that need to be removed to fully realize the properties of the material. The Haydale Plasma treatment preferentially etches non-crystalline materials such as; amorphous carbon, catalytic residues, and most other organic and inorganic contaminations.

• Surface Engineering: Fullerenes have inert surfaces making them not only difficult to cohesively bond into a matrix but also hard to mix uniformly. The Haydale Plasma processing can be used to improve compatibility between virtually any materials, aid wetting, improve dispersions, and enable covalent bonding. The Haydale technology opens the possibility to tailor virtually any surface with desirable chemical groups and allows dispersion to occur without the need for additional surfactants or dispersing agents.

• De-Agglomeration: Due to the manufacturing methods for both CNTs and GNPs, and the intrinsic nature of very small particles, these materials tend to agglomerate. To fully realise their properties, agglomerates must be deagglomerated and individual structures need to be liberated. De-agglomeration and exfoliation of CNTs and GNPs by the Haydale Plasma process have been independently proven. This method uniquely enables disentanglement of the nano structure without compromising the materials properties. The analysis has been conducted through SEM imagery, surface area analysis, particle size analysis, and decreases in bulk density.

The Haydale solution can also provide a range of additional offerings, including:

• Deposition: Plasma Enhanced CVD can be used to sputter molecular layers of most liquid and metallic chemicals onto surfaces. This could include metallic sputtering, or the polymerisation of a dispersant or coupling agent directly onto the surface of the nano material.

• Application Development: Taking great results from the nano to the macro has been one of the biggest challenges in nanotechnology. Haydale has developed its technology for application improvements successfully demonstrating enhancements in disperse-ability and dispersion stability leading to enhanced electrical and mechanical properties without the need for detrimental additional dispersant technologies

The aim of Haydale is to become the market leader in the provision of an enabling Split Plasma process for the CNT, Graphene and general Fullerenes value chain. To achieve this Haydale will provide bespoke solutions to manufacturers of Carbon Powders (such as CNTs and Graphene) as well as end users by focussing on:
• Unlocking the potential of Graphene and other carbon powders; and
• Removing the barriers in carbon nano technology
• Supplying nano materials that work

Further details may be found at www.haydale.com

About Graphene

Professor Andre Geim and Professor Kostya Novoselov extracted Graphene from bulk graphite at The University of Manchester in 2004 and were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work. Graphene, a novel two-dimensional material which can be seen as a monolayer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, is one of the world's most versatile materials. It is the strongest, thinnest, best conducting material known to science and its potential applications are vast. Since its discovery Graphene has generated enormous interest around the world with businesses looking at ways of converting the lab based discovery into commercial applications. Industry is now looking to make use of Graphenes’ outstanding mechanical enhancing and electrical properties given that it can outperform that of steel and copper respectively. It is a transparent conductor, and combines both electrical and optical capabilities. This will enable development of high speed consumer electronics, information processing solutions, biosensors, supercapacitors that could be used in place of batteries, mechanical parts, and composites for cars and aircraft down to everyday consumer products ranging from inks and paints to textiles and floor coverings.

About Diener electronic GmbH & Co.

Diener electronic was founded in 1993 and is a dynamic, growing German company. They are one of the leading producers of low-pressure plasma systems, plasma HF generators and atmospheric plasma both nationally and internationally. The company has a site in Jettingen specifically focussed on electronics while the main manufacture is carried out in Ebhausen. This site houses electronics, process development, mechanical engineering and sales in a new purpose built factory. Diener sells, services and maintains plasma reactors on a worldwide basis.

For information about the Graphene Conference 2012 please go to:
www.grapheneconf.com

For more information, please click here

Contacts:
Ray Gibbs
(Group Commercial Director)
Tel +44 (0)7836 776128

Ian Walters
(Business Development Director)
Tel +44 (0)7786 003384

Trevor Phillips
(Media Relations Officer)
Tel +44 (0)7889 153628

If you have a comment, please Contact us.

Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Bookmark: