Technology Licensing Opportunity - This is not a procurement. Fabrication of Graphite by Spark Plasma Sintering Opportunity: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), is offering the opportunity to enter into a license and/or collaborative research agreement to commercialize the Fabrication of Graphite by Spark Plasma Sintering technology. Background: Graphite is commonly used in a number of energy and engineering applications. However, many such applications require the graphite material to be high-purity and densified. Existing methods to produce densified graphite include pressing, extrusion, or sintering. However, these techniques tend to be limited in their application for wide-scale production and are often limited by excessive costs with scale up and density. For example, scaling up these conventional techniques requires a series of time-intensive steps, such as steps with high-temperatures, high-pressures, and long annealing times (e.g., several days) to cure final materials, which may or may not fail during the process. These challenges also raise the potential for costly overruns and lost time. Moreover, conventional techniques may form graphite materials that suffer a loss in density after fabrication. Description: Researchers at INL have developed a process using spark plasma sintering (SPS) to fabricate high-density graphite structures. The method comprises subjecting raw graphite to an electrical current, to drive a rise in temperature not exceeding about 1200°C, and a pressure not exceeding about 300 MPa to sublimate the raw material into a high-density graphite structure. Applications: Interested industries may include graphite fabrication as well as industries that use graphite to construct other things. Some industries may include the primary electrode material in batteries, brake linings, carbon brushes in electric motors, grinding/lubricants, molds for castings, and the refractory material in furnaces. Advantages: As mentioned, this process allows the graphite to be produced with less energy and less time. The process requires lower temperature and pressure than other methods. Impact: The lower temperatures and pressures result in savings in both energy and time. In other methods, the same high temperatures and pressures result in time and energy intensive additional steps that would not be necessary with INL’s process. Development: TRL 5. This process has been validated at bench scale. IP Status: US Patent Application No. 62/850,344, “Spark Plasma Sintering Methods for Fabricating Dense Graphite,” BEA Docket No. BA-1080. Also see publication: Aguiar, J. A., Kwon, S., Coryell, B., Eyerman, E., Bokov, A., Castro, R. H. R., … Luther, E. (2019, December 2). Densification of Graphite under High Pressure and Moderate Temperature. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352492819307524. INL is seeking to license the above intellectual property to a company with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Exclusive rights in defined fields of use may be available. Please visit Technology Deployment’s website at https://inl.gov/inl-initiatives/technology-deployment for more information on working with INL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process. Companies interested in learning more about this licensing opportunity should contact Jon Cook at
[email protected].