Manufacture of graphene-based conductive, corrosion inhibiting coatings

The high electrical and thermal conductivity, and manufacturability of copper means it is widely used for electrical connections/casings, conducting channels and heat sinking of electronic systems used in demanding, failure-critical applications. Many of these, such as petrochemical processing, oil and gas, paper mills, effluent treatment plants and aerospace, create corrosive atmospheres rich in moisture, hydrogen sulphide and sulphur dioxide. Copper corrosion can lead to malfunction and overheating within 4 weeks in these industries and failure rates following introduction of RoSH directives have increased by up to 6 times. Graphene is chemically inert and theoretically impermeable, having the potential for atomically thin corrosion inhibiting coatings. 2-DTech aim to develop a novel manufacturing process for graphene, using dopants introduced during large area deposition to fortify domain boundaries, realising a step change in corrosion-resistant, conducting films. The project therefore seeks to prove the feasibility of an enabling technology for coating electronic and thermal management hardware used for failure-critical operations in corrosive environments.