AGORACOM Small-cap Investor Relations Blog

SPONSOR: ZEN Graphene Solutions: An emerging advanced materials and graphene development company with a focus on new solutions using pure graphene and other two-dimensional materials. Our competitive advantage relies on the unique qualities of our multi-decade supply of precursor materials in the Albany Graphite Deposit. Independent labs in Japan, UK, Israel, USA and Canada confirm this. Click here for more information

Every age in the history of human civilisation has a signature material, from the Stone Age, to the Bronze and Iron Ages. We might even call today’s information-driven society the Silicon Age.

Since the 1960s, silicon nanostructures, the building-blocks of microchips, have supercharged the development of electronics, communications, manufacturing, medicine, and more.

How small are these nanostructures? Very, very small – you could fit at least 3,000 silicon transistors onto the tip of a human hair. But there is a limit: below about 5 nanometres (5 millionths of a millimetre), it is hard to improve the performance of silicon devices any further.

So if we are about to exhaust the potential of silicon nanomaterials, what will be our next signature material? That’s where “atomaterials” come in.What are atomaterials?

What are atomaterials?

“Atomaterials” is short for “atomic materials”, so called because their properties depend on the precise configuration of their atoms. It is a new but rapidly developing field.

One example is graphene, which is made of carbon atoms. Unlike diamond, in which the carbon atoms form a rigid three-dimensional structure, graphene is made of single layer of carbon atoms, bonded together in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice.

Diamond’s rigid structure is the reason for its celebrated hardness and longevity, making it the perfect material for high-end drill bits and expensive jewellery. In contrast, the two-dimensional form of carbon atoms in graphene allows electron travelling frictionless at a high speed giving ultrahigh conductivity and the outstanding in plane mechanical strength. Thus, graphene has broad applications in medicines, electronics, energy storage, light processing, and water filtration. 

Using lasers, we can fashion these atomic structures into miniaturised devices with exceptional performance.

Using atomaterials, our lab has been working on a range of innovations, at various stages of development. They include:

• A magic cooling film. This film can cool the environment by up to 10℃ without using any electricity. By integrating such a film into a building, the electricity used for air conditioning can be reduced by 35%, and summer electricity blackouts effectively stopped. This will not only save electricity bills but also reduce greenhouse emissions.
• Heat-absorbing film. Some 97% of Earth’s water is in the oceans, and is salty and unusable without expensive processing. Efficiently removing salt from seawater could be a long-term solution to the growing global freshwater scarcity. With a solar-powered graphene film, this process can be made very efficient.

The film absorbs almost all the sunlight shining on it and converts it into heat. The temperature can be increased to 160℃ within 30 seconds. This heat can then distil seawater with an efficiency greater than 95%, and the distilled water is cleaner than tapwater. This low-cost technology can be suitable for domestic and industry applications.

• Smart sensing film. These flexible atomaterial films can incorporate a wide range of functions including environmental sensing, communication, and energy storage. They have a broad range of applications in healthcare, sports, advanced manufacturing, farming, and others. For example, smart films could monitor soil humidity near plants’ roots, thus helping to make agriculture more water-efficient.
• Ultrathin, ultra-lightweight lenses. The bulkiest part of a mobile phone camera is the lens, because it needs to be made of thick glass with particular optical properties. But lenses made with graphene can be mere millionths of a millimetre thick, and still deliver superb image quality. Such lenses could greatly reduce the weight and cost of everything from phones to space satellites.
• Near-instant power supply. We have developed an environmentally friendly supercapacitor from graphene that charges devices in seconds, and has a lifetime of millions of charge cycles. By attaching it to the back of a solar cell, it can store and deliver solar-generated energy whenever and wherever required. You will be free and truly mobile.

Where to next?

It can take years for some of these laboratory technologies to reach fruition. To try and speed up the process, we established the CTAM Global OpenLab to engage with industry, academia, government and the wider community and to promote sharing and collaboration. The lab was launched earlier this month at the International Conference on Nanomaterial and Atomaterial Sciences and Applications (ICNASA2020).

The world is facing pressing challenges, from climate change, to energy and resource scarcity, to our health and well-being.

Material innovation is more vital than ever and needs to be more efficient, design-driven and environmentally friendly. But these challenges can only be solved by joint effort from worldwide researchers, enterprise, industry and government with a sharing and open mindset.

SOURCE: https://techfinancials.co.za/2020/02/12/next-tech-frontier-can-graphene-change-the-world/

SPONSOR: ZEN Graphene Solutions: An emerging advanced materials and graphene development company with a focus on new solutions using pure graphene and other two-dimensional materials. Our competitive advantage relies on the unique qualities of our multi-decade supply of precursor materials in the Albany Graphite Deposit. Independent labs in Japan, UK, Israel, USA and Canada confirm this. Click here for more information

An international group of Russian and Japanese scientists recently developed a graphene-based material that might significantly increase the recording density in data storage devices, such as SSDs and flash drives. Among the main advantages of the material is the absence of rewrite limit, which will allow implementing new devices for Big Data processes.

The development of compact and reliable memory devices is an increasing need. Today, traditional devices are devices in which information is transferred through electric current. The simplest example is a flash card or SSD. At the same time, users inevitably encounter problems: the file may not be recorded correctly, the computer may stop “seeing” the flash drive, and to record a large amount of information, rather massive devices are required.

A promising alternative to electronics is spintronics. In spintronics, devices operate on the principle of magnetoresistance: there are three layers, the first and third of which are ferromagnetic, and the middle one is nonmagnetic. Passing through such a “sandwich” structure, electrons, depending on their spin, are scattered differently in the magnetized edge layers, which affects the resulting resistance of the device.

The control of information using the standard logical bits, 0 and 1, can be performed by detecting an increase or decrease in this resistance.

The international group of scientists from National University of Science and Technology MISIS (Russia) and National Institute for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (Japan) developed a material that can significantly increase the capacity of magnetic memory by increasing the recording density. The scientists used a combination of graphene and the semi-metallic Heusler alloy Co2FeGaGe.

“Japanese colleagues for the first time grew a single-atom layer of graphene on a layer of semi-metallic ferromagnetic material and measured its properties. The Japanese team, led by Dr. Seiji Sakai, conducts unique experiments, while our group is engaged in a theoretical description of the data obtained. Our teams have been working together for many years and have obtained a number of important results,” comments Pavel Sorokin, Sc.D. in Physics and Mathematics, head of the “Theoretical Materials Science of Nanostructures” infrastructure project at the NUST MISIS Laboratory of Inorganic Nanomaterials.

Previously, graphene was not used in magnetic memory devices as carbon atoms reacted with the magnetic layer, which led to changes in its properties. By careful selection of the Heusler alloy composition, as well as the methods of its application, it was possible to create a thinner sample compared to previous analogues. This, in turn, will significantly increase the capacity of magnetic memory devices without increasing their physical size.

Next, the scientists plan to scale the experimental sample and modify the structure.

https://www.graphene-info.com/new-graphene-based-material-increase-recording-density-data-storage-devices

SPONSOR: ZEN Graphene Solutions: An emerging advanced materials and graphene development company with a focus on new solutions using pure graphene and other two-dimensional materials. Our competitive advantage relies on the unique qualities of our multi-decade supply of precursor materials in the Albany Graphite Deposit. Independent labs in Japan, UK, Israel, USA and Canada confirm this. Click here for more information

• “This company has the very rare graphite deposit in Ontario – as it is able to transform or exfoliate into graphene products easier than other graphites around the world”
• “The goal of the facility is to start producing some of these nanomaterials – graphene, graphene oxide, and graphene quantum dots.” “These materials at the research level have a lot of excitement around them. They also come at a very high price.”

Phoenix, Arizona–(Newsfile Corp. – February 6, 2020) – The Stock Day Podcast welcomed ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd. (OTC Pink: ZENYF) (“the Company”), an emerging graphene technology solutions company with a focus on the development of graphene-based nanomaterial products and applications. CEO of the Company, Dr. Francis Dubé, joined Stock Day host Everett Jolly.

Jolly began the interview by noting that Dubé was appointed CEO of the Company in early 2019 and asked about his background with the Company. Dubé explained that he has been a long-term shareholder of the Company, which eventually led to his position as its CEO. “We really liked the asset that this company has – the very rare graphite deposit in Ontario – as it is able to transform or exfoliate into graphene products easier than other graphites around the world,” explained Dubé. “With the graphene markets predicted to be 5 Billion dollars by 2030 and the Quantum Dots market supposed to be 30 Billion dollars by then as well, this created a big opportunity for this company.” “We really wanted to bring a science and business approach to this mining project,” he continued. “There was a lot of work to do on the science front, so we brought in a lot of smart people around us,” said Dubé, adding that the Company has partnered with numerous universities and is leveraging their research dollars.

“There is no other graphite like it; It came up as a liquid intrusion into the host rock. When you compare that to regular graphite, which comes from millions of years of heat and pressure, it’s a very different formation and because of the way it was formed it really gives us a natural advantage in the graphene space,” said Dubé. “That’s why I got involved and we’ve done a lot of great things since we took over about 21 months ago,” he shared.

Jolly then commented on the Company’s new facility and asked about their plans for this space. “The grand opening of the new facility is actually March 3rd. So, it’s very new and we’re just getting into the space,” said Dubé, adding that the Company has ordered equipment for the facility, which has recently started to arrive. “The goal of that facility is to start producing some of these nanomaterials – graphene, graphene oxide, and graphene quantum dots,” explained Dubé. “These materials at the research level have a lot of excitement around them. They also come at a very high price,” he added, noting that graphene quantum dots sell for around $4,000 per gram.

Dubé then explained that given the facility’s ability to produce these high-end materials, the Company has the opportunity to develop a steady cash flow by supplying them to universities. “This does a few things for us. Number one, it’s a proof of concept,” said Dubé. “Number two, we can actually start generating some revenue, which for a company like us is very exciting,” he continued. “This gives us the potential to start earning enough revenue to offset our expenses.”

“The biggest thing is it starts creating some opportunities for us to start partnering with universities, to work with end users that are partners in those universities, and create a sales funnel for us,” said Dubé. “So, we’re pretty excited to get that facility up and running,” he shared.

Jolly then asked about the progress of the Company’s recent licensing agreements. “We have three universities that we are working with,” said Dubé. “We have signed a non-exclusive agreement with one them to use their patented process to make graphene,” he explained. “We’re pretty excited to work with them and scale up this process,” said Dubé, adding that the Company is also working with an additional university through an exclusive licensing agreement to develop and scale up processes to produce graphene oxide.

“One of the advantages there is that the processes in place, which have been developed for the last seven or eight months, really work with our graphite and only our graphite,” said Dubé. He then shared that the Company is also working with the University of British Columbia on numerous projects.

“Your flagship property, the Albany Graphite Deposit, what is going on over there at this moment?” asked Jolly. “In 2019, we raised the necessary money to start the baseline studies and completed the first year last year. We’re actually starting the second year of that baseline work now, and as an industrial mineral under provincial jurisdiction, we have to do two years of that,” said Dubé. “We’re gonna be looking at those results and hopefully jumping right into permitting after that,” he explained. “We’re moving the project along as fast as we can from that perspective.”

To close the interview, Dubé shared that the Company will be beginning the production of nanomaterials and will also have a web store set-up by the end of the month, which will allow users to purchase the products. “We’re hoping to start generating some revenue starting in March of this year. So, we’re really at an inflection point for us as a company right now,” said Dubé. “I don’t think there has ever been a better time to start looking at our company,” closed Dubé.

To hear the entire interview with Dr. Francis Dubé, follow the link to the podcast here: https://audioboom.com/posts/7497655-zen-graphene-solutions-ltd-ceo-dr-francis-dube-is-featured-on-the-stock-day-podcast

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 potential competitive advantage in the graphene market as independent labs in Japan, UK, Israel, USA and Canada have independently demonstrated that ZEN’s Albany PureTM Graphite 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]

SOURCE: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/zen-graphene-solutions-ltd-ceo-140200823.html