Graphene has important research in many fields due to its superior performance, such as batteries, catalysis, environment, sensors, electronic components, supercapacitors and medical health. Graphene has been used as a conductive agent for lithium-ion batteries, but all used are flake powders, and there is still a problem of agglomeration, and three-dimensional graphene powder has not yet achieved practical applications.

The three-dimensional graphene powder material invented by the team is a new type of carbon material with a unique structure that does not exist in existing materials. The preparation process is simple and the cost is low. Because it is grown at high temperature by CVD, its conductivity is extremely good, and it is a practical and efficient catalyst material. Vertical graphene sheets of different lengths that grow perpendicular to the surface of the base particles are cross-linked to form a three-dimensional structure, which is easy to contact with active materials and form an efficient conductive network. When used as a cathode material lithium iron phosphate conductive agent, the lithium iron phosphate obtains higher specific capacity, better cycle stability and rate performance, especially maintaining high capacity and stability under high load. This method is suitable for large-scale production and has huge application prospects.

Based on its own original technology, facing the economic development needs of the country and Guangdong Province, with the goal of industrial application, the team researches the large-scale production process and commercial application development of 3D graphene powder with technologies such as heat treatment and vertical graphene thermal CVD growth.

The three-dimensional graphene powder is prepared by the thermal CVD technology independently developed by our team. It is composed of three-dimensional spherical particles of graphene nanosheets with a size of about tens of nanometers. The particle size is uniform and the dispersion is good. The graphene nanosheets are vertical. Distributed on the surface of the particles, the edges have a few-layer or single-layer structure, and can form good contact with each other. The use of thermal CVD technology to prepare vertically-grown three-dimensional graphene not only solves the problem of easy agglomeration of two-dimensional graphene sheets, but also does not need to consume a large amount of concentrated acid and strong oxidant during the preparation process, thereby reducing environmental pollution.

The three-dimensional graphene powder has high electrical conductivity, good dispersibility, is easy to mass-produce, and has a huge industrialization prospect. It can be applied in the fields of energy storage such as lithium-ion batteries, and in the fields of traditional reinforcing materials such as plastics and rubber. In addition, there is also great application potential in anti-corrosion coatings. At present, this project focuses on promoting the application of three-dimensional graphene powder as an efficient conductive additive to cathode materials, while developing applications in coatings and other fields. The team has purchased advanced CVD equipment that can produce 3D graphene powder in batches.

At present, the team has successfully realized the transformation of 3D graphene from small-scale experiment to industrialization stage by improving the process and equipment customization. The current daily output can reach more than 5 kg, and the subsequent output can be further improved through customized Chinese equipment.

 SEM photo of three-dimensional graphene powder

 TEM image of 3D graphene powder

Three-dimensional graphene powder photo