Commercial graphene manufacturers are calling for the establishment of a new independent body to define an accepted industry standard for graphene material.
The industry has seen a glut of new entrants on the back of graphene’s much discussed game-changing potential over the last 18 months, and this has raised concerns over the quality and exact nature of available products being marketed by new companies as graphene.
The principal area of contention is over whether some products labelled as graphene are in fact graphite.
Surprisingly, the scientific definition of graphene – a one atom-thick layer of carbon – appeared to be losing its foothold in real world applications at theGraphene Live 2013 industry conference in Berlin yesterday.
"There is no exact threshold [for how many layers of carbon constitute graphene]," said Dr Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, senior technology analyst for IDTechEx.
Standards needed to improve product confidence
Considering the abundance of potential uses for graphene, there may be multiple graphenes and graphene-related products for various applications, which can become complicated for buyers of the material.
It has therefore been suggested that an independent association should be set up to monitor the marketing and product quality of all graphene produced at this early stage in the material’s development, in order to gain market confidence.
Otherwise there is a big risk that "mass confusion" could signal an end for commercial graphene products before the industry even gets off the ground, according to Jon Myers, CEO of Graphene Technologies.
"Lots of people call what they make ‘graphene’. There are no standards, no definition," Myers said, adding that it was in manufacturers’ interests to use the term to market their product.
"I'd do the same. If I made a 50-layer platelet, I'd call it graphene too," he said.
Ironically, then, the huge variety of potential uses for graphene that have helped raise the material’s profile across the world may also turn out to be one its major drawbacks.
As Myers noted, "there is no killer app for graphene," meaning that achieving a standard qualification for the substance is difficult.
"Asbury Carbons has 100 different types of carbon products which they sell into different markets. Is there any reason the nano-world will be any different?" Myers asked.
Comparisons with aluminium's commercialisation were also drawn. Before an efficient industrial method of producing aluminium was discovered, it was considered more valuable than gold.
Indeed, the metal was considered so precious that the tip of the Washington Monument in Washington DC, US, was cast in aluminium when it was completed in 1884.
When it was discovered that aluminium could be produced commercially in the late 1880s using the Hall-Heroult process, it took a further 20 years for the metal to take off because commercial uses had not yet been discovered.
Myers hopes that the graphene industry will not fall into this "20-year trap", and said that establishing a commercially accepted definition for graphene and an independent body to oversee its production is one of the first challenges that needs to be addressed.