Test-bed: Roll-to-Roll coating of graphene composites

The work is carried out within the strategic innovation program SIO Grafen, a joint initiative of Vinnova, Formas and the Swedish Energy Agency.

To succeed in the transition to a fossil-free society, reach 100% renewable electricity production and achieve sustainable development, great focus needs to be placed on green energy materials and processes.

Graphene and graphene composites are promising materials in a wide range of energy applications and significant progress has been made in the graphene research area.

Today graphene can be produced in water at large-scale with liquid exfoliation techniques and be used with bio-based binders in composites for e.g. energy storage applications. However, due to the material geometry and complex rheology it is challenging to coat graphene composites in a conventional roll-to-roll process with sufficient coating thickness.

We believe that many graphene innovations will be based on graphene composites coated on large surfaces with a wide variety of substrates and to be able to take the step from lab scale research to demonstration of pilot production and then on to product and product development, a test-bed is needed for coating of graphene composites with large-scale techniques.

Based on our research results from recent years and together with the paper industry, we want to adapt existing pilot plants for paper coating to test-beds for coating of graphene and graphene composites. This will be done through coatings experiments, development of coating equipment, evaluation and adaptation of substrates as well as development of characterization methods for large-scale coated graphene composites. The test-bed will be available to everyone and this an important step in making graphene a Swedish area of strength and enabling graphene to support the transition to a sustainable society.