Awaiting Public Project Summary

This project is a collaboration between Haydale Ltd, Thales and University of Bath. The aim of the project is to assess the feasibility of employing graphene based polymer skins for sensing and deicing applications. The are major issues associated with deicing are in aircarft, at airports, transmission power lines, instrumentation, antenna masks, wind turbines and the exploration of cold environments (e.g. oil and gas). Such a sensing surface can be integrated with thermally active (shape changing) structures to achieve structural deflection for combined thermal-mechanical de-icing. The opportunity to limit the extent of ice build-up on structures has broad application opportunities and enable light weight structures with reduced material costs and fuel saving for mobile applications and improved performance for instrumentation.

Using an innovative process technology, Haydale Ltd. have developed a cost effective route to both manufacture and disperse nanoparticles such as graphene and carbon nanotubes. With funding from the TSB a feasibility study will be undertaken to establish how modification to the performance of polymers can be used to enhance the properties and performance of recycled polymers, thereby enabling the circular economy to be sustained.

The inclusion into thermoset resins of nano particles functionalised by the innovative patented Haydale manufacturing route will enhance the properties of composites and reduce the risk of delamination. This enables lower volume, reduced mass composite structures to be manufactured and will reduce the volume of fibre required for equivalent performance.

ACCORDs will develop an imaging-based characterization framework (ACCORDs framework) for the holistic correlative assessment of Graphene Family Materials (GFMs) as a representative of 2D nanomaterials (NMs) to assess and predict 2D NMs health and environmental risks. The ACCORDs framework will operationalise safe and sustainable by design (SSbD) strategies proposed in past or ongoing H2020 projects or within OECD by correlating low-, medium-, and high-resolution physico-chemical-biological imagingbased methods with non-imaging methods in a tiered approach. ACCORDs will deliver the ACCORDs framework and user guidance, new imaging-based characterisation methods (3-6 methods), reference in vitro tests (up to three new tests), new reference 2D NMs (up to three) for different matrices, a new minimum information reporting guideline for FAIR data sharing and reuse of images as well as an atlas with reference images for diagnostics of compromised safety of GFMs / GFM products. The new guidelines and standard proposals will be submitted to standardisation bodies to allow creation of regulatory ready products. The novelty of ACCORDs is in translating the principles of medical imaging-based diagnostics to 2D material hazard diagnostics. ACCORDs will accelerate industrial sectors in the area of aviation, marine construction, drone production, flexible electronics, photovoltaics, photocatalytics and print inks-based sensors. The value ACCORDs proposes to the graphene industry are practical, easy, imaging-based tools for GFM quality monitoring next to the production line with a possibility to be correlated with advanced high-resolution imaging characterization methods in case hazard i.e. deviation from controls (benchmark values) are diagnosed. The ACCORDs framework and tools will contribute to the European Green Deal by addressing the topic: “Graphene: Europe in the lead” and to a new European strategy on standardization, released on 2nd February, 2022.