First Graphene (UK) Ltd, a Tier 1 Member of the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre based in Manchester, has a strong research and development programme focused on graphene-based technologies and innovative solutions.
First Graphene’s PureGRAPH® branded products are utilised across many different industries and applications, where robust product quality assurance and consistency is vital for the successful adoption of graphene by end users.
Understanding the specific surface area (SSA) of graphene platelets is an important parameter for many applications. SSA is typically characterised by the BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) method which measures gas adsorption by powder surfaces to calculate surface area.
In a collaborative M4R project with NPL researchers, the BET specific surface area of a range of PureGRAPH® products and intermediates was measured to characterise the nature of First Graphene’s platelets. The team at NPL demonstrated that precise measurement of SSA by BET can be successfully used to discriminate between different PureGRAPH® product grades.
Previously, the determination of SSA for graphene materials has proven challenging due to the 2D morphology of graphene platelets. This study builds upon recent published work by NPL in which researchers investigated factors that impact upon BET measurements. They found that the pristine nature of the graphene platelets was an important factor.
In addition, the feasibility of an alternative method to characterise the specific surface area of graphene platelets when dispersed in a liquid was also demonstrated, offering significantly faster measurements
