The global competition of graphene, considered one of the materials of the future capable of causing a new industrial revolution, shows that the research fever around graphene does not stop and many countries and companies want to lead the ranking of major exporters graphene in the world.
The United States, Japan, England and Spain are leading the way in graphene research and production. Graphene is a nanomaterial obtained through the separation of atomic thickness sheets of graphite. Through the traditional method of obtaining graphene sheets by stripping the graphite with adhesive tape, very high quality graphene is obtained, but the problem is that the quantities produced are very low and usually insufficient for industrial use. Companies in some countries of the world are working tirelessly to find a more profitable method of obtaining graphene from graphite and being able to export it to other countries. In recent years there has been a notable increase in the number of patents registered in relation to the different uses of graphene.
Spain, world power
Spain has established itself as one of the world’s major powers in the manufacture and research of graphene. The company Graphenano, based in Yecla (Murcia) is one of the largest producers of this mineral as well as being the only company in the world with a patent for graphene for medical use.
In just a few years our country has positioned itself as one of the main producers of this promising material, which was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. In general terms, Europe is doing well and is competing with two world powers that seemed to be going to seize the monopoly: the United States and China, Spain being one of the countries with the highest production of this material.
Spanish research groups have been the biggest beneficiaries of community funds after the English. Spanish companies have burst into this new market with force, leading the production and export of graphene in Europe. A clear example is the company Graphenea, based in the Basque Country, which has contracts to sell high-quality graphene to firms such as Nokia for the development of lithium ion with graphene electrodes or Phillips, which works on LED diodes to generate much more. light consuming less energy.
Replacing the best current external batteries is something that is still a bit distant due to its high cost, but work is already underway in this field to produce graphene batteries that can replace lithium batteries. In addition, Graphenea was considered in 2020 as the best graphene manufacturing company by the experts of Graphchina 2020, one of the largest conferences in the sector.
Other countries that bet on graphene
Currently, many countries such as the United States, South Korea, England or China are betting on the manufacture of graphene. Currently, methods for manufacturing graphene at an industrial level require expensive, specialized equipment and complicated manufacturing procedures. It is difficult to talk about the largest exporters worldwide, since there are no verifiable data or an official ranking. In Spain we do obtain reliable data as we have stated, but at the global level the only accessible data is the ranking of the largest graphite exporters.
According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), the countries that export the largest amounts of graphite in the world are China, Brazil, Germany and the United States. This does not imply anything, since they are graphite exporting countries does not mean that the countries that buy it are capable of using methods to produce graphene of sufficient quality to be used industrially. One of the most effective methods is laminating the graphite with adhesive tape with fairly low production results. At the moment, other methods of increasing the quantity produced have meant that the quality of graphene is not good enough. In short, cataloging the countries that export the most graphene worldwide is complicated, but we can see a clear trend that Spain has companies capable of producing this material for industrial use with quality and effectiveness.
