Sparc to manufacture graphene additive coatings

Graphene technology company Sparc Technologies has developed a commercial manufacturing process for the production of graphene based additive products, and will begin manufacture.

The company has identified, trailed and ordered specialised graphene based additive manufacturing equipment and has located a manufacturing site.

Sparc managing director Mike Bartels said: “Our path to commercialisation is now clear with detailed discussions progressing with global coatings companies.

“Comprehensive test data, undertaken to ISO standards, has now been shared under confidentiality/non-disclosure agreements and material transfer agreements.

“Sparc has been able to demonstrate its know-how in addressing industry acknowledged challenges in the production of homogenous graphene dispersion having developed a proprietary manufacturing process for the commercial manufacture of graphene based additive products.”

Sparc claims to have overcome a major hurdle in graphene coatings production – graphene is difficult to disperse and tends to re-agglomerate.

Bartels said graphene based additive samples from manufacturing trials were now available for customer testing, and ‘collaborative discussions’ were advanced with multiple global coatings companies.

“Patent filing activities continue for IP protection.

“Sparc is now poised to undertake the manufacture of graphene based additives on a commercial scale supporting coatings companies generating significant revenue from products targeting anti-corrosive end uses.”

Sparc is also developing its Sparc Green Hydrogen technology which creates hydrogen directly from sunlight and water in a single photocatalytic water splitting process.

The technology was originally developed by the University of Adelaide and Flinders University.

Picture: Sparc Technologies

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