Shenzhen Enrich Electronics Co.,Ltd

Graphene, known as the "king of new materials," was pulled down by the cruel reality of the altar. Last year, companies with graphene as their main business suffered losses of varying degrees and faced heavy pressure to survive. Recently, a message about the combination of a graphene flexible touch module and a flexible OLED seems to make people see a new hope for a wide range of applications for graphene. But is this really the case? Can flexible OLEDs be a killer application for graphene?

Graphene flexible film is too skinny

It is understood that Chongqing Moshi Technology Co., Ltd. is making flexible touch modules based on graphene conductive films. Relevant person in charge of Chongqing Moxi Technology Co., Ltd. introduced that at present, the fitting work between the flexible touch module and the flexible OLED display has been completed and related performance tests are being conducted. In February of this year, this flexible touch display principle prototype was also selected for participation in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology “National New Material Industry Development - 2017 Achievement Report Presentation”. It seems that the graphene conductive film is getting closer and closer to the flexible OLED.

In fact, the conductive film of the flexible touch module has a variety of technical routes to choose from, such as ITO, Metal Mesh, graphene, nano-silver wire, carbon nanotubes, etc. The graphene conductive film is only a choice of flexible touch module solutions. one.

At present, ITO conductive film technology is very mature, low cost and huge global production capacity. ITO is dominant in the display touch market. In the past four or five years, nano silver wire and Metal Mesh have been trying to challenge the dominance of ITO. They have not been able to do so. The flexible OLED industry is now booming, and in particular, folding screens may become popular in the next two or three years. This gives Metal Mesh and graphene conductive films some opportunities.

Folding screens have certain requirements for bending performance. Although ITO can be bent, bending performance is not good, and it is easy to split. Metal Mesh and graphene conductive films have more advantages in bending performance. In addition, the distance between the folded panels of the folding screen is relatively close, and the material with better conductivity than ITO is required to reduce the impedance and improve the performance, which also leaves the Metal Mesh and the graphene conductive film alive.

According to reports, Korea has found a method for preparing a large-size graphene film, and has prepared a high-purity graphene film and successfully attached it to a transparent and bendable polymer to make a transparent electrode. However, graphene conductive films are not as mature as Metal Mesh. The related literature also pointed out that the size of the graphene transparent conductive film produced by the CVD method is subject to the performance of the device, and it is difficult to realize the preparation of the large-area transparent conductive film and the non-destructive transfer of the film, and at the same time the cost required for large-scale production is high. Two-dimensional carbon responsible person pointed out that graphene is currently facing three major problems: complex processes, requires a lot of manpower, high labor costs; there is no mature industrial chain, high procurement costs; large-scale preparation is difficult, production yield is low . The material and labor costs are high, and the yield rate is low, which drives up the production cost. The graphene conductive film lacks market competitiveness. No wonder someone said: "Graphene is too tall. It is simply a chicken knife."

Shi Haofei, director of the micro-nano fabrication and system integration research center of the Chongqing Institute of Green Intelligent Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also pointed out that at present, the fusion of flexible touch modules based on graphene conductive films and flexible OLED displays is still at the forefront in the global graphene field. During the research phase, the technical difficulty lies in how to make graphene more efficient in OLED applications.

Graphene is in urgent need of killer applications

Flexible OLEDs are also far-reaching water for graphene companies, and they cannot solve thirst. Graphene companies are facing greater operating pressure. The "2017-2018 Annual Report on China's Graphene Development" studied 26 key listed companies of graphene concepts and 16 key companies of new triple-sheet graphene in Shanghai and Shenzhen. The report shows that listed companies that use graphene as their main business are still Loss of state at the loss of pressure.

In order to turn a profit, graphene companies are exploring new applications and creating new profitable points. The "2017-2018 Annual Report on China's Graphene Development" pointed out that at present, China's graphene applications in the fields of composite materials, lithium batteries, thermal management, etc. have started, and touch screens, heating films, far-infrared physiotherapy products, and anti-corrosion coatings have become enterprises. Attention is focused on applications such as flexible displays, sensors, supercapacitors, semiconductor devices, and biopharmaceuticals.

According to two-dimensional carbon related person in charge, at present, their main source of profit is the heating physiotherapy market. Graphene has certain advantages in performance, but its cost is higher than that of carbon fiber. Currently, it is only one of the choices of downstream manufacturers. So for graphene companies, heating therapy is just an entry-level application market.

He further revealed that they also use graphene to develop sensors and have already completed laboratory products, with preliminary capacity for mass production. However, it is also necessary to cooperate with downstream application companies to continuously improve products. Because their products are new products, they need to be repeatedly tested and feedbacked by downstream application vendors, and then continuously improved before they can enter the application.

But now graphene technology is not very mature, and often there will be such a situation: Although graphene performance has advantages, but the price is a lot higher than competing products, and few people buy it. Experts point out that the potential of graphene has not yet been fully explored. He is trying to push the material to the extreme. Only in this way can he find the uniqueness of graphene in the application.

With the growing maturity of graphene production and production technology, the graphene application market may gradually be opened. An industry veteran points out that if graphene is to be developed, it needs a killer application. This application is not just an upgraded version of the application, but an application that is upgrading. However, the application of graphene killer is not very clear at present, and all companies are exploring it.