The President and Chief Executive Officer of Grafoid and Focus Metals, Gary Economo has declared that Grafoid has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Rutgers University Advanced Materials via Immiscible Polymer Processing (AMIPP) Advanced Polymer Center to co-develop graphene-based technologies for both non-polymer and polymer applications.
According to the conditions of the MOU, Grafoid will provide manpower, expertise in graphene technologies and graphene materials from the Lac Knife graphite resource of Focus Metals, while Rutgers University will provide the inter-disciplinary and research lab facilities.
According to Economo, the MOU is a major landmark in the graphene development program of Focus Metals and the first of such a deal for Rutgers University. Gordon Chiu, Chief Scientist and Vice President of Grafoid carried out the preliminary study of the graphite property of Lac Knife on grab samples. Economo stated that Chiu’s research work on graphene is leading to a new phase and eventually to industrial applications for the company’s graphene material.
Principal Investigator for Advanced Polymer Materials School of Engineering of Rutgers University, Professor Thomas Nosker stated that the superior quality graphite material obtained from the Lac Knife project located in Canada has superior electrical conductivity. The material will find use in numerous engineering applications, he said.
The first graphene-based commercial applications are expected to be in touch-screen computing devices by 2012 at the earliest. However, researchers are working on the material’s use in renewable energy, medical, automotive, aviation, military, computing and telecommunications. The partnership between Rutgers AMIPP and Grafoid will initially study the material’s applications in automotive, aviation and infrastructural markets.
Source: http://www.focusmetals.ca