Piggies to the market

Established in 2015, the Monash University spin-off SupraG Energy is developing and commercialising graphene technology. The company has licensed the rights to a novel way of producing graphene hydrogel membranes, and its potential use in supercapacitors that could be part of a next wave of energy storage solutions.

Graphene is a single layer of tightly bound carbon atoms that can be obtained from graphite. This was first demonstrated by Andre Geim, a physics professor at the University of Manchester, who used simple Scotch tape to pull graphite layers apart. He obtained a 'two-dimensional' material, graphene, that was found to have a number of desirable characteristics, including a very high strength - graphene is 200 times stronger than steel - and superb conductivity for heat and electricity.

One of the potential applications of the 'wonder material' is in supercapacitors which could potentially provide an alternative to the chemical storage of power with batteries. At present, most supercapacitors are based on activated carbon material, but graphene is an attractive replacement due to its high relative surface area, its lightweight nature, elastic properties and mechanical strength.

However, producing graphene in a usable form at commercial scale has been difficult.

SupraG's licensed technology produces a stable graphene gel by introducing ions or molecules between layers of graphene sheets. The gel can then also be converted into a high strength, highly porous and elastic graphene foam which has been used as a biosensor and as a tissue scaffold.