02-Sep-16 The first field trial in Australia for conductive geotextiles enhanced with graphene have been a success. Imagine IM, which built Australia’s first commercial scale graphene production plant this year, has worked with Australia’s largest geosynthetics manufacturer (Geofabrics Australasia) to create this new type of geotextile. Graphene offers high electrical and thermal conductivity, hydrophobicity, strength, and impermeability to all gases. Layers of graphene could give materials strength exceeding steel, enable self-repairing qualities, and impart an electrical conductivity greater than copper. In geosynthetics, this may create nanocomposite materials with superior anti-clogging properties in geotextiles, heightened leak location ability in lining systems, a wider range of conductive materials, and much more.
The geotextiles, which was coated with imgne® X3 masterbatch, was tested by ExcelPlas, a National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) accredited facility. The introduction of a conductive geotextile, enhanced by graphene, is significant. Applications may include heightened leak location and improved construction quality assurance (CQA) for lining systems in landfills, mining, wastewater treatment plants, reservoirs, industrial processing facilities, dams, and other containment projects.
“We developed imgne® X3 as a graphene-based coating that enables delivery of conductivity in textiles and on other materials without impacting the strength and other characteristics of the materials themselves,” said Phillip Aitchison, COO of Imagine IM. “The development of a conductive geotextile as Imagine IM’s first commercial application of imgne® X3 is a major milestone for us. We have now proven our ability to both manufacture graphene at scale, and also to be able to produce masterbatch solutions that will enable large-scale industrial applications using graphene to make smart materials.”
“These results are extremely gratifying,” Chris Gilbey, CEO of Imagine IM added. “The intent of using imgne® X3 is to provide a methodology for making geotextiles conductive that will lead to substantial economies for end users and to make leak detection more affordable and more accurate.”
A larger field trial with Geofabrics Australasia is being planned.
(Source Courtesy: geosynthetica.net)
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