Thunder Bay, Ontario–(Newsfile Corp. – November 14, 2019) – ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd. (TSXV:ZEN) (“ZEN” or the “Company“) has signed the definitive graphene manufacturing process License Agreement referred to in a news release on May 30, 2019. This agreement licenses to ZEN the intellectual property created by scientists and laboratories within a renowned Canadian University. This agreement has no expiry date and provides that a royalty is payable by ZEN based on the annual amount of material processed under the intellectual property.
The company also reports that it has signed an 18-month exclusive initial option agreement with the University of Guelph (Guelph) for intellectual property regarding an electrochemical exfoliation (ECE) process to produce Graphene Oxide. In addition, the University of British Columbia (UBC) and ZEN have begun negotiating a Collaborative Research Agreement (CRA) template that will form the basis of each agreement with various UBC researchers. Neither Guelph nor UBC is party to the definitive agreement mentioned above.
Francis Dubé, CEO commented: “These three Canadian universities are contributing significantly to unlocking the value of the Albany Graphite deposit and creating a strong intellectual property foundation for the company. We are happy to bring investment dollars, both directly and indirectly, via various grants to these academic partners and will continue to support research opportunities in the exciting field of nanoscience.”
The definitive License Agreement took effect November 1, 2019 and subsequently ZEN has begun investing in certain equipment required under this process. ZEN anticipates that the equipment will be installed during Q1 2020 at its Guelph location thereby allowing the Company to start production of this graphene product for market development and subsequent sale.
The exclusive agreement with Guelph results from research and development by Prof. Aicheng Chen and his group. Early results from this process are very encouraging with Albany Graphite significantly outperforming both flake/sedimentary graphite and synthetic graphite, demonstrating again the uniqueness of ZEN’s graphite and its superior performance to exfoliate into graphene products.
Several researchers at UBC Okanagan continue to work with ZEN’s material in multiple areas including the synthesis of Graphene Quantum Dots and Graphene Oxide, along with multiple applications including battery anodes, polymers, aluminum, concrete, coatings, and others. Given that collaboration amongst UBC researchers is expected, this intellectual property template should accelerate the science by eliminating repetitive negotiation with each research team at UBC. ZEN will report on material final agreements with UBC as they are executed.
About ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd.
ZEN is an emerging graphene technology solutions company with a focus on the development of graphene-based nanomaterial products and applications. The unique Albany Graphite Project provides the company with a competitive advantage in the potential graphene market as independent labs in Japan, UK, Israel, USA and Canada have independently demonstrated that ZEN’s Albany Graphite/Naturally PureTM is an ideal precursor material which easily converts (exfoliates) to graphene, using a variety of mechanical, chemical and electrochemical methods.
For further information:
Dr. Francis Dubé, Chief Executive Officer
Tel: +1 (289) 821-2820
Email: [email protected]