(correspondent: yang yue) in recent years, graphene has been the brightest star in the circle of materials and is dubbed as “king of new materials” in the industry. marine chemical research institute has conducted researches on application of graphene in coatings for over two years, made smooth progress and has made a series of achievements. it has established partnerships with enterprises and organizations that specialize in researches on graphene, carry out researches on anti-corrosive coating, water-based coating, coating for wind power generation equipment and skid-resistant coating, and made progresses in key technologies.
according to the experts of the research team, coatings added with graphene are lighter and thinner and their antiseptic property and weather resistance have been significantly increased. in term of the key indicator of time of resistance to salt fog, the graphene anticorrosive paint used to replace epoxy zinc-rich primer is at least twice that of products compliant with relevant national standard, and the specific gravity of the graphene anticorrosive paint is lower than that of epoxy zinc-rich primer by 70%. the products have a promising prospect of application in the fields of shipbuilding, marine engineering and aviation. in addition, the institute has solved some technical problems of electromagnetic wave coating that contains graphene with good electrical conductivity and electromagnetic wave permeability, thereby basically meeting the strict demands of customers and entering the stage of application verification.
as a country that is rich in graphite resources, china is a late comer in researches on graphene, but it grows fast and approaches the countries that takes a leads in this area as a whole, takes a leading position in some areas and enjoys proprietary intellectual property rights. at the mobile world congress shanghai 2016 held in shanghai on june 29, the graphene exhibition hall that was set up for the first time was highlighted and reported by major media including cctv, science and technology daily, ta kung pao and wen hui bao based in hong kong, etc. the heavy anti-corrosion graphene coating developed by the institute made its debut at the exhibition, and real model of corrosion test of its product aroused great interests of media, institutional investors and professional visitors and recognized by industrial experts.
statistical data show that, at present the cost of graphene processing of china has dropped to one tenths of that in 2011, and the good rate and consistency of grapheme have been enhanced significantly, and the downstream applications will be put into mass production soon. the chinese government has released its “made in china 2025” strategy, defining the key position of graphene in strategic and leading-edge materials of china. in november 2015, china’s ministry of industry and information technology, together with the national development and reform commission and the ministry of science and technology issued opinions on accelerating the innovative development of the graphene industry, pointing out that china is at a critical period of industrialization of graphene, plans to build its graphene industry into a leading industry, gradually industrialize the material in some industrial products and consumer goods and create a well-established graphene industrial system by 2020.
by closely following the market trend and seizing the opportunities of policy support, the institute will continue to conduct further application researches in the fields of functional coatings including anticorrosive coating as well as water-based paint and solvent-free coating on the basis of its experimental results. meanwhile, it will cooperate with specialized scientific research institutes that engage in basic researches, conduct researches on the corrosion prevention mechanism of graphene coating and forge a strong alliance by utilizing its advantages in application research, so as to lay a theoretical foundation for further broadening application of its products in the field of coating and create favorable conditions for improving the industrial system.