ILMA Compoundings June 2019 - 25

friction going that low at the macro
level. Most has been at a tiny scale."
The NGA launched in 2016 as
the advocacy and education arm for
researchers and entrepreneurs working
to harness the power of graphene.
The NGA has been educating the
public, media and stakeholders about
graphene's two unique forms:
* Graphene film is the Nobel
Prize-winning single atomic
layer of carbon. Requiring a
substrate and usually demanding
a clean room when being applied,
the film provides see-through
strength for such high-tech applications as sensors, electronics and
touch-screen devices.
* Graphene powder or flake can be
incorporated as an ingredient in
other materials, such as concrete,
polymers and composites. In
graphene asphalt, for instance,
graphene is not laid over the top,
but rather it is incorporated into
the mix. Graphene powder is
rarely a single atom thick but can
go as high as 10 layers, said Cinker.

STANDARDIZATION
In just two or three years, Cinker has
heard the terminology of graphene
progress from random to uniform.
That's the result of discussions and
forums held "on an international
platform" to develop consensus and
write the vocabulary of graphene, and
related two-dimensional materials,
into an International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) document.
"This unification of lexicon and
terminology we've seen in past few
years has been immense," said Cinker.
"It's been very useful to have a standard
that's internationally accepted."
Though not mandatory, the
document affords ethical companies
a basis for substantiating such terms
as graphene nanoplatelets, graphene
oxide and graphite nanoplatelets and

"proving to their customers this is not
the Wild West."
The next step is achieving standardization. NGA and multiple partners
are working with the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI)
for a "seal of approval," certifying
measurement of graphene against
"certain parameters and protocols,"
Cinker said. The U.S. will lead the
testing and measurement program,
but other details, including a timeline,
are "under wraps."
"We will have a great announcement
that's going to be making the industry
look at this in a different way," she said.
From Houston, IA Coatings,
a longtime oil-industry player,
says it was first to market with a
graphene-enhanced lubricant. Chief
Information Officer and Managing
Partner Tracey Marquart Jr. sees
a world of knockoff brands "that
are taking carbon or graphite and
grinding it up and saying it's graphene.
Because there aren't any standards,
there are a lot of low-quality products
on the market." His firm's suppliers provide pure graphene, mined
according to strict procedures from
known high-quality sites in Sri Lanka
and other spots around the world, and
produced under rigorous criteria.
"They have all the lab testing and all
the criteria that follows the graphene
so we can see how it was produced
and where it's coming from and the
quality of the material," he said.

GREASE, LUBRICANTS
AND THE PROBLEM
WITH OIL
Argonne National Laboratory's
researchers are applying their scientific

minds to the continuing questions of
maintaining graphene's superlubricity,
while also "working hand in hand
with the industry" on real-world
projects, said Sumant.
One partnership explores the use of
graphene to reduce friction and seal
pipe seams in offshore drilling platforms. Another uses graphene to adjust
friction during the stamping of auto
chassis, improving safety by strengthening steel at points that would otherwise
be thinned and weakened.
Erdemir sees "a lot of potentials out
there for some industrial applications,"
but the current science of graphene
is "much richer" under dry conditions
than exploration of its incorporation
into carriers such as grease. "It will
be extremely fitting and useful if we
can achieve these levels of friction
when, and if, graphene gets combined
in some manner with conventional
lubricants," he said.
Graphene can be incorporated into
oil, but the process remains tricky,
said Cinker. If not dispersed correctly, the graphene clumps up. End
users that try dispersal on their own,
without relying on the intellectual
property of companies experienced
in graphene use, find they "won't be
getting the results they were promised
or thought they were going to get."
IA Coatings came across graphene
while seeking a technologically
advanced engine treatment for use in
markets "eating up higher volumes of
oil," such as industrial construction
and cruise lines, said Marquart.
"Right off the bat, we had an inkling
that graphene had a lot of benefits
we could use in oil and coatings," he

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ILMA Compoundings June 2019

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