Story highlights
- Centre of Process Innovation (CPI) part of collaborative project to develop graphene barrier materials
- ‘Gravia’ projectwill investigate the feasibility of producing graphene-based barrier films for next generation flexible OLED lighting and display products
- Challenge will be to develop large-area poly-crystalline graphene films which maximise performance whilst mitigating process imperfections
(2D Materials Magazine)- The Centre of Process Innovation (CPI) has announced that it is part of a collaboration to develop graphene barrier materials for application in flexible transparent plastic electronic based displays. Product incorporating these displays include smartphones, tablets and wearable electronics. Other partners involved in the project include the University of Cambridge, FlexEnable Ltd, the National Physical Laboratory. The lead business partner is FlexEnable.
Graphene barrier materials project
The twelve month ‘Gravia’ project is funded under the Innovate UK ‘realising the graphene revolution’ call and will investigate the feasibility of producing graphene-based barrier films for next generation flexible OLED lighting and display products.
Gravia will seek to accelerate product development, improving upon current ultra barrier performance and lifetimes by producing consistent barrier materials and processes on large area substrates by utilising specialist growth techniques. The key challenge will be to develop large-area poly-crystalline graphene films which maximise performance whilst mitigating process imperfections. In this way, solutions can be produced at scale and economically viable in the future.
James Johnstone, Business Development Manager at CPI
“The collaboration brings together world class supply chain expertise across the UK to bridge the gap from Graphene research to the manufacturing of commercial flexible display screens. The Hofmann group at the Department of Engineering in Cambridge is a key innovator in the growth and processing of graphene films. NPL are experts in the traceable measurement of water transfer characteristics and FlexEnable brings an industrial focus to the project with their extensive expertise in the manufacture of flexible electronics and flexible display screens in particular. CPI’s role in the project is to use roll-to-roll atomic layer deposition technologies to scale up, test and fabricate the ultra barrier materials.”
Chuck Milligan, CEO FlexEnable
“Graphene and other 2D materials are extremely relevant for the flexible electronics industry, with the potential for broad usage from conductors to semiconductors, insulators and even barriers. Building on FlexEnable’s previous leading-edge work with graphene, our involvement will enable the accelerated integration of these game-changing materials in a new generation of ultra-flexible end-user applications with innovative form factors.”
