A paper published in the journal Carbon shows that Zen Graphene Solutions’ (TSXV: ZEN) trademarked Albany Pure Graphite exfoliates more easily into graphene than the other materials in the market.
The University of Connecticut researchers behind the study used an interfacial trapping exfoliation process which is spontaneous and driven by the spreading of graphene at a liquid-liquid interface between two immiscible fluids like oil and water, a process that lowers the free energy of the system.
The article reported that “the time to reach full emulsion for the Albany Pure material was much shorter than for other graphite reference material” and concluded that “the source of the graphite plays a role in the exfoliation in addition to the flake size.”
To test whether there was a difference in the material’s response based on where it was extracted, testing was also conducted to compare the purified East Pipe and West Pipe material and confirmed very similar exfoliation rates for the two pipes at Zen’s Albany property.
Albany is a microcrystalline deposit located in northeastern Ontario, Canada.
According to Zen, its flake graphite has the potential to be a precursor component of devices used by the aerospace, biomedical, water treatment, transportation and civil engineering sectors.