Mr. Jamie Deith reports

QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY AND EAGLE GRAPHITE REPORT SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS ON MULTI-LAYER GRAPHENE PROJECT

Queen's University and Eagle Graphite Inc. have provided an update on encouraging progress resulting from their joint multilayer graphene research effort. The research was carried out under the NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) Engage grant program, as outlined in the company's press release of October, 2016.

Multilayer graphene (MLG) is potentially useful when incorporated into polymer composites, with a consequent large improvement in strength, stiffness and heat resistance. This is important to the aerospace and automotive industries, where high performance composites are used to reduce weight and thus fuel consumption. For electric vehicles, a reduction in weight means longer range between charging points.

Dr. Aristides Docoslis, PhD, PEng, associate professor of chemical engineering at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., described the progress made during the preliminary phase of the project as follows: "We have developed a new environmentally friendly, mechanical/chemical, aqueous-based process that exfoliates graphite to very fine, micron-sized multilayer graphene (MLG) particles of controlled size distribution and aspect ratio. The yield of graphite exfoliation and MLG size distribution correlates well with key process parameters, which is promising from a process scalability point of view. The size and aspect ratio of the produced MLG makes it suitable for use in polymer-matrix-based composite materials with fine-tuned properties."

George Hawley of Supermin, who acted as a consultant to the project, added: "Our work at Queen's University aims to develop a mechanical-chemical method for exfoliating Eagle's graphite to produce MLG of an aspect ratio that is estimated to be in the correct range. Preliminary results indicate that this is achievable without using conventional exfoliation methods that rely on strong acids and explosive chemicals.

"It is important to develop new methods such as this because there is presently no practical way to incorporate graphene's extremely high strength and stiffness into advanced materials such as plastic composites reinforced with carbon fibre. Monolayer graphene is so thin that it rapidly increases the viscosity of any composites beyond the capability of today's processing equipment. Current production equipment can handle only about 1 per cent graphene, and such a tiny amount will not make enough of a difference to be worthwhile. Multilayer graphene (MLG), on the other hand, should provide the right balance between strength and workability."

"We at Eagle are excited to be at the forefront developing a potentially high-value product with enormous target markets," said Jamie Deith, chief executive officer of Eagle. "These early results are very encouraging, and we plan to continue this research for as long as it shows promise."

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