‘MATERIAL OF OUR AGE’
A Memphis startup looks to lead the graphene revolution
When Brad Larschan started to get excited about graphene several years ago, he also acknowledged he might be chasing a golden goose. h Scientists, entrepreneurs and deep-tech investors have described it as a supermaterial usable in anything from military technology and medical implants to construction materials and running shoes. h “I used to think I was crazy,” Larschan said. “There are just so many uses.” h Now, he has decided he’s not crazy and is looking to expand the Memphis-based startup he formed last year, Avadain, and license the technology needed to make the type of high-quality graphene flakes not currently on the market.
Larschan said graphene has “the potential to be one of the most disruptive materials of all time.”
He’s not alone in thinking this. Researchers at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, where a high-quality form of the material was first produced in 2004, said: “No other material has the breadth of superlatives that graphene boasts, making it ideal for countless applications.
“Combining all of graphene’s amazing properties could create an impact of the scale last seen with the Industrial Revolution.”
The graphene market is forecast to grow from an $821 million industry in 2021 to a $7.6 billion industry by 2028.
But if you haven’t heard of graphene, you’re not alone, Larschan said.
Graphite, a crystalline form of carbon with atoms arranged in a hexagonal structure, is a cheap and abundant material. When it’s taken down to its simplest form – graphene, a single atomic layer of carbon – it possesses numerous qualities.
In 2004, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, researchers at the University of Manchester, discovered how to create a single atomic layer of the material, eliminating the defects in graphene oxide. In 2010, they won the Nobel Prize in physics for their work.
Geim, Novoselov and others who have researched the material found it to be stronger than steel, yet light and flexible, a great conductor of heat and electricity and transparent.
Today there exist suboptimal types of graphene, such as graphene oxide, in which oxygen molecules bond to carbon as the graphite is separated into single atomic layers, causing defects. The bulk of it is produced in China.
“Graphene is about to change our world,” Larschan said. “Many leading tech companies and any number of startups are poised to enhance hundreds of products with graphene. But no one is able to deliver those flakes.
“We’ve successfully demonstrated our breakthrough and globally patented green technology to make graphene flakes. Now what we have to do is upscale that technology.”
Fundraising and upscaling
Larschan first learned of graphene through his other company, Bastille, which helps institutions “identify potentially disruptive materials” and then secure patents as well as funding. One of his clients was the Fraunhofer Society, a collection of German research institutions. “In 2016, they asked me to come over and discuss whether we thought there was a commercial application for graphene. And the answer was a resounding yes, with three exclamation marks,” he said.
Graphene oxide is currently used for more durable road surfaces and lighter tennis shoes, among other products. And while it’s not as high quality as what Larschan aims to do, it has some benefits, including its affordability.
“But the really exciting uses … haven’t yet been realized commercially because there is no source for the graphene,” he said.
That’s where Larschan hopes Avadain will come in, which was spun out of Bastille in September. The company received an initial investment from Japanese conglomerate Panasonic and has since received a $3.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce as well as from sources locally and in California.
The company is in a second cycle of raising capital and is hoping to raise $5 million through equity crowdfunding, which gives average Americans the chance to invest relatively small sums in startups. Starting last month, investors can buy at $4 per share with a $100 minimum investment.
That $5 million could help pave the way for Avadain to “upscale its environmentally-friendly process to mass-produce large, thin and nearly defect-free graphene flakes, expand its patents, produce samples and fund operations,” according to a news release.
‘The material of our age’
Larschan and others have asserted graphene will be more important to the 21st century than plastics were to the 20th.
“Materials define an age. Graphene is the material of our age. It is about to make our world cleaner, healthier, more prosperous and sustainable,” he said.
Researchers are looking at whether graphene can help create longer-lasting electric vehicle batteries and smaller, safer implantable medical devices.
The U.S. Department of Defense has invested in research into graphene for applications ranging from lighter and stealthier drones to developing noise cancellation systems for ground combat vehicles, like armored personnel carriers.
Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson – whose ventures include an airline and commercial spaceflight operation – has for years talked about the possibility of making lighter and more efficient planes using graphene.
Lighter vehicles translate to decreased fuel needs, an environmental boon as well as an economic one. In addition to other benefits, graphene is biodegradable.
Graphene will never be an end product. No one is going to go to the store and buy it, Larschan said. What it can do is replace other materials to enhance a wide array of existing products.
Avadain is looking to license its technology to three groups of customers: advanced materials manufacturers; companies that currently have applications for graphene but don’t have a way to buy it commercially; and companies that have “a mission-critical need for graphene” and can’t afford supply chain disruptions, like defense contractors.
What happens after those partnerships are formed could, Larschan hopes, shape the future.
Corinne S Kennedy covers economic development and health care for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached via email at Corinne.kennedy@commercialappeal.com