SBIR-STTR Award

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to demonstrate technical feasibility of producing low-cost, high-quality and large-area graphene films. The approach is to grow uniform graphene films over continuous tapes of electropolished catalytic copper foil in a roll-to-roll process. This project is expected to address critical challenges that limit industrial manufacture of graphene films including, (1) the need for high vacuum and high temperature, resulting in high cost; and (2) the limitation of graphene film size by the furnace dimension. The broader/commercial impact of this project will be the potential to provide high-quality wafer-scale graphene material in industrial quantities. The technology will have advantages of cost, quality, and design flexibility over competing concepts. Large-area graphene films can be used for industrial applications including flexible, transparent electrode, Radio-Frequency electronics, Field-Effect-Transistor-based chemical sensors, near infrared detectors, as well as academic applications such as novel sample supports for ultra-high resolution transmission electron microscopy.

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will demonstrate and develop technology for the roll-to-roll production of continuous graphene films. The graphene production technology is based upon innovations in the graphene synthesis and graphene handling, addressing critical deficiencies limiting industrial manufacture of graphene. The synthesis process is performed at atmospheric pressure, allowing roll-to-roll graphene formation on continuous tapes of copper foil passed through the growth region. This eliminates the need for an expensive vacuum furnace and allows fabrication of graphene films larger than the furnace size. The graphene handling process developed during Phase I enables the transfer of graphene sheets from the metal catalyst to nearly any smooth surface without any high temperature steps and without the use of harsh chemicals. Most importantly, the graphene transfer preserves the original metal substrate for reuse. The reusable substrate dramatically reduces the cost of graphene production and eliminates the largest source of waste in the process. In Phase II, we will demonstrate the continuous film processes for graphene synthesis and transfer to new surfaces and design a large area roll-to-roll graphene production system. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is through the industrial scale availability of high quality, low cost graphene sheets. Transparent, electrically and thermally conductive, strong, flexible, and gas impermeable, graphene is an emerging ?super material? with innumerable proposed applications including flexible transparent conductors for displays and photovoltaics; high frequency electronics for communications; chemical and biological sensors; corrosion barrier; filtration and water desalination; energy storage; and many more. Industrial quantities of graphene films will enable the development of these and other applications, with substantial benefit to society. The technology that we will to develop has advantages of cost, quality, and design flexibility over competing concepts. Successful completion of this SBIR project will establish Graphene Frontiers as a leading commercial supplier of high-quality graphene to the business and research communities at an attractive price. Our business model includes revenue from sale of the graphene material, licensing of our proprietary growth technology, and specialized products. Our first graphene-based product, TEM grids for electron microscopy, is already on sale with a development partner. These advances will position Graphene Frontiers to attract additional funding from investors, customers, and other non-SBIR sources.