NGC Announces Successful Test Production of Graphe Northern Graphite Announces Successful Test Production of Graphene
July 21st, 2011 – Northern Graphite Corporation (NGC: TSXV)
is pleased to announce that graphene has been successfully made on a test basis using large flake graphite from the Company’s Bissett Creek project in Northern Ontario. Northern’s standard 95%C, large flake graphite was evaluated as a source material for making graphene by an eminent professor in the field at the Chinese Academy of Sciences who is doing research making graphene sheets larger than 30cm2 in size using the graphene oxide methodology. The tests indicated that graphene made from Northern’s jumbo flake is superior to Chinese powder and large flake graphite in terms of size, higher electrical conductivity, lower resistance and greater transparency (see table).
Graphene size Opto-electrical properties
Graphene area
(?m2) Percent (%) Transmittance(%)Sheet resistance(Ω/sq)
Chinese graphite powder (800mesh)
0.04-0.36 49 79 12000
Chinese flake graphite (32mesh)
?7000 56 78 840
Northern Graphite ?10000 64 81 800
Graphene (Chinese Powder) Graphene (Chinese Flake) Graphene (Bissett Creek Flake)
Approximately 70% of production from the Bissett Creek property will be large flake (+80 mesh) and almost all of this will in fact be +48 mesh jumbo flake which is expected to attract premium pricing and be a better source material for the potential manufacture of graphene. The very high percentage of large flakes makes BissettCreek unique compared to most graphite deposits worldwide which produce a blend of large, medium and small flakes, as well as a large percentage of low value -150 mesh flake and amorphous powder which are not suitable for graphene, Li ion batteries or other high end, high growth applications.
Graphite is one of only two naturally occurring forms of carbon, the other being diamonds. A graphite flake is much like a deck of cards, it consists of many thin layers stacked one on top of the other with weak bonds holding them together. Delaminating these layers to the lowest common denominator results in a one atom thick sheet of carbon with the carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern. This is graphene.
Graphene was first isolated by scientists at the University of Manchester who won the Noble Prize for Physics in 2010 for their efforts. Graphene is transparent in infra-red and visible light, flexible, and stronger than steel. It conducts heat 10 times faster than copper and can carry 1,000 times the density of electrical current of copper wire.
Graphene is expected to be a revolutionary material that could change the technology of semiconductors and LCD touch screens and monitors, create super small transistors and super dense data storage, increase energy storage and solar cell efficiency, and will transform many other applications.
According to a professor at Georgia Tech University, there are nearly 200 companies, including Intel and IBM, currently involved in graphene research. In 2010 graphene was the subject of approximately 3,000 research papers and the European Union and South Korea have each recently started $1.5 billion efforts to build industrial scale, next generation display materials using graphene as a substitute for indium tin oxide(“ITO”).
The world has only 5-10 years of ITO reserves remaining and prices exceed US$700,000 per tonne.
See what is possible at
: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YbS-YyvCl4&NR=1