A family owned chemical company, which began life converting industrial waste into road surfacing, is showcasing its recent breakthroughs with 21st century miracle material graphene.
Thomas Swan and Co, of Consett, is introducing two graphene products to the market at the Printed Electronics Europe exhibition, which takes place next week in Berlin.
The County Durham firm, established at the former steel town in 1926, has been researching ways of producing graphene; a flexible substance which is incredibly strong, lightweight and a superb conductor of heat and electricity.
The potential applications for graphene are vast, from electronics and telecoms to energy storage, prompting comparisons with the way plastics and silicon transformed our lives in the last century. The benefits to the consumer could be seen in faster and cheaper devices such as mobile phones which are thin, flexible and almost unbreakable.
Despite about 9,000 graphene-related patents being filed no developer has yet been able to place graphene into a device which would lead to a commercially available product, explained Andy Goodwin, commercial director of Thomas Swans advanced materials division.
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