Advanced Materials and Composites

Lighter & Stronger with Graphene

Technology’s rapid development imposes strict demands on material performance. As planes, cars and marine vessels move faster they experience higher static and dynamic loads. For example, the pursuit of a reduced carbon footprint is leading to the replacement of gasoline-powered engines with electric ones, while the green energy industry is looking to improve wind turbine blades. These transitions require lighter and stronger materials to be used. For many years, carbon fiber and fiberglass composites have been proving their ability to replace conventional materials such as metal, wood and plastic in critical applications due to fiber-based materials having a better balance between their strength and weight. Similarly, graphene has the potential to improve fiber composites in a variety of ways.

Developing Enhanced Composite Formulations with Graphene

Although fibers carry most of the load in composite materials, their matrix is also essential in keeping fibers together and transferring the load. By enhancing the matrix, graphene offers the potential to improve resins used in composite material manufacturing. For example, graphene nanoplatelets in the matrix inhibit crack formation and propagation due to shock or catastrophic load. Graphene-enhanced composites also exhibit higher fatigue resistance and impact resistance compared to conventional alternatives.

G6 is working to develop enhanced composite formulations to make graphene’s benefits available to customers via easy-to-implement solutions.

Our Solutions

Graphene-enhanced materials have the potential to significantly improve the performance of everyday things like sports equipment, apparel and computers, thereby enhancing the quality of peoples’ daily lives.

For example, it has been proven that graphene successfully improves the wear resistance of athletic shoes. Graphene can also be used to reinforce tennis rackets and graphene coatings with low friction can make skis faster. Accordingly, G6 is open to working with clients to develop graphene-based formulations for implementation in the sports industry.

The aerospace industry has always been an early adopter of new materials and, since 1987, the use of composites in aerospace has doubled every five years. The advantages of using composites in the aviation industry are indisputable. The drawbacks, however, are also recognized by the industry, which include unpredictable fatigue behavior. In parallel, the rapidly developing area of unmanned aerial vehicles has fueled the demand for even lighter and stronger composites. Drones impose strict requirements on the weight-to-strength ratio of materials as weight reduction is of paramount importance for long-range operations.

Therefore, graphene offers a variety of improvements for aerospace-focused composites – improved fatigue resistance and enhanced impact resistance are the most important.

As the latest advancement in the industry, composite materials are being widely used to build marine vessels. They offer many advantages such as excellent strength-to-weight ratios, corrosion resistance and low maintenance costs. Unfortunately, today’s composites often also have poor impact resistance, low heat tolerance and weak UV resistance.

Adding graphene to laminating resins solves many of these problems. UV resistance improves due to the light absorbing nature of graphene nanoplatelets and by their ability to quench the molecular excitation on the quantum level. Graphene also naturally increases impact resistance. Further, graphene increases the melting temperature of polymers, thereby improving their heat tolerance. To address corrosion due to water penetration and hydrolysis, the infusion of graphene nanoplatelets into the laminating resin creates a barrier against water molecules.

Another notable improvement offered by graphene is better fatigue resistance. Over the course of its service life, a boat experiences millions of wave-based oscillations, which impose cyclic loads that damage composites over time. G6 has developed graphene-based additives for vinyl ester and epoxy, which are the most popular laminating resins

Download Whitepaper: Graphene-Enhanced Vinyl Ester Resin

Download Whitepaper: Graphene-Enhanced Epoxy Resin

Automobiles account for 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is significantly contributing to climate change. Therefore, the automotive industry is continuously searching for lighter and stronger materials to reduce its carbon footprint. Composites, being lighter than metals, offer a viable solution by improving fuel efficiency of gasoline-powered vehicles and increasing the driving range of electrically-powered ones.

Graphene improves composites by enhancing fatigue resistance and impact resistance. This improvement adds value to automotive products by prolonging the service life of composite parts and reducing maintenance costs.