NanoCarbon has closed a commercial patent licensing agreement with the University of Wollongong, with plans to develop industrial processes and products using graphene.
The company, established this year, will use a process developed at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials, which has patents in Australia, Japan, USA and the EU. NanoCarbon announced plans today to be producing graphene in Sydney in 2015.
Graphene was discovered only a decade ago and is an atom-thick layer removed from graphite. It is thought to offer exciting possibilities due to properties including being stronger than steel and more conductive of electricity than silver.
It plans to use graphene technology in applications to impact high barrier films, lithium ion batteries, and water purification.
“We believe that now is the time when the unique benefits delivered by graphene will start to be truly realised in products,” said Chris Gilbey, NanoCarbon’s CEO, in a statement.
“This patent represents the first major step for NanoCarbon in being able to develop proprietary technologies that will have global implications in advanced manufacturing.”
The CEO said he believed that NanoCarbon had begun negotiations with several global manufacturers on “high performance graphene-based composite materials”, and that his company had entered the global market for grapheme technologies early enough to be globally relevant.
NanoCarbon will initially source its material from the University of Wollongong.
Image: Chris Gilbey (supplied)