Mr. Simon Marcotte reports

BLACK SWAN'S GRAPHENE PRODUCT INCREASES ABRASION RESISTANCE BY AS MUCH AS 80% IN THERMOPLASTIC POLYURETHANE

The latest version of Black Swan Graphene Inc.'s GraphCore 001 graphene nanoplatelet material enhances the composite abrasion resistance by a range of 60 per cent to 80 per cent when used as an additive in thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). The company had previously communicated an already-enviable enhancement performance of 45 per cent in TPU with a 1-per-cent loading ratio (amount of additive material added to a composite material, relative to the amount of matrix material).

TPU is a thermoplastic elastomer combining some properties of both plastic and rubber. It is tough, flexible, durable and resistant to abrasion as well as to oils and lubricants. This unique combination of properties makes TPU ideally suitable for various applications, including in automotive, sports equipment, textile coatings and mobile hand sets.

Simon Marcotte, president and chief executive officer of Black Swan Graphene, commented: "Today's performance results serve as a reminder that graphene could revolutionize the enormous polymer industry. In addition to improving abrasion resistance, graphene offers meaningful benefits such as weight reduction, cost savings, enhanced precision, improved gas permeability and increased thermal conductivity, all of which can improve existing markets and pave the way for new applications."

The manufacture of the composites, being the GraphCore-enhanced TPU, and the subsequent testing were carried out independently at the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) located at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. The precise type of TPU selected for the trials is currently used in mobile equipment and extruded sheets, which are generally used in many industries from packaging to transportation and construction materials. The composites were manufactured through a master batch and then moulded to carry out the tests, which were based on loading ratios of 0.5 per cent, 1.0 per cent and 1.5 per cent.

The results show that all the GraphCore-loaded composites demonstrated improvements in performance compared to the pristine level.

The abrasion tests correspond to norm ISO 5470-1:2016 -- Taber abrasion. Three thousand cycles were carried out using standard abrasive wheels with 1,000 grams of weight per wheel. The weight loss was recorded after each 1,000 cycles. Between each 1,000 cycles, the wheels were abraded with the standard sandpaper to 50 cycles; sandpaper was changed for the start of each new test.

Market perspectives

The current plastic additive market (and not the plastic market itself) is estimated to be approximately $40-billion (U.S.) per year. In its 2021 report, the Graphene Council estimated that the potential annual graphene requirements, when combining all different types of polymers at a 5-per-cent loading ratio, would be 12.5 million tonnes of graphene.

About Black Swan Graphene Inc.

Black Swan is focused on the large-scale production and commercialization of patented high performance and low-cost graphene products aimed at several industrial sectors, including concrete, polymers, lithium-ion batteries and others, which are expected to require large volumes of graphene. Black Swan aims to leverage the low cost and green hydroelectricity of the province of Quebec as well as the proximity of the province's emerging graphite industry in order to establish an integrated supply chain, reduce overall costs and accelerate the deployment of graphene usage. On March 27, 2023, Black Swan, Nationwide Engineering Research and Development Ltd. (NERD) and Arup Group Ltd. announced strategic partnerships, establishing a fully integrated supply chain and providing a turnkey solution for the construction and concrete industries. Arup is a multinational engineering consultancy headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with 18,000 experts working across 140 countries. Black Swan's graphene processing technology was developed by Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. over the last decade. Thomas Swan is a United Kingdom based global chemicals manufacturer with a century-long record and has been at the forefront of graphene innovation.

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