Offset lithographic printing of nanocomposite graphene ink.

Offset lithographic printing presses are used continuously to print the high quality glossy colour pages of magazines. The
presses can have multiple colour print units to allow a vast range of graphics to be printed on cardboard, paper and thin
plastics. This project is focused on printing on thin polypropylene sheets which are 1000mm by 707mm and less than 60
microns thick. Commercial presses at Nano Products parent company are set up to print on thin plastic to produce in mould
labels. These labels are loaded into injection moulding die cavity prior to polypropylene melt being forced in at high
pressure. When the cavity is opened the label is incorporated into the wall of the injection moulded object. This is
commonly used to brand label food packaging such as yoghurt and cream pots, ice cream tubs, and fast moving consumer
goods. It is hoped that the outcome of this project will be a new electrical and thermally conductive offset lithographic ink
which can be used on the same press with conventional colour offset inks. In the future it is hoped that the printed
graphene features can be incorporated in super-capacitors, batteries, toys and games, electronic anti-counterfeit labels and
as the conducting layers in flexible photovoltaic devices and displays. Because of the high quality and speed of offset
lithographic printing there are likely to be significant cost reduction of flexible electronic devices and components, which
will lead to lower prices. As well as established opportunities there is the strategic potential to print power harvesting, power
storage, sensing, actuation, display and telecommunications devices on a single flexible substrate to enable new systems
level devices for logistic, healthcare diagnostics and telecommunications devices to name a few.
The collaborative partners are working together to develop a new UV cured graphene ink and to test whether it is feasible
to formulate the ink for high quality, high speed offset printing.

The components and sub-systems which are enabled by an offset printable graphene ink include energy harvesting,
energy storage, healthcare medical devices, including diagnostics and the telecommunications industry especially active
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) labels, tags, anti-counterfeit and security systems. The benefits will be a scalable
process for high volume manufacture. The ability to define graphene electrodes and tracks on thin plastic film, which with the advances of compostable poly lactic acid films allow more environmentally friendly disposable devices to be produced.
Nano Products business plan is focussed on selling high quality printed conductive inks on thin plastics to UK and
international customers.
The Printed Electronics Techology Evaluation Centre (PETEC) which is part of the TSBs High Value Manufacturing
Catapult would be able to utilise printed graphene substrates produced by Nano Products Catapult for its innovations and
commercial developments. Nano Products has started interactions with Mark Beckwith at PETEC to discuss RFID device
assembly. The product innovations arising from the high value printed graphene devices will improve UK economic activity,
because the production systems, skills and supply chain supplies for the technology are UK based. The products will allow
healthcare providers to provide higher quality care and new battery and supercapcitor electrodes could enable
manufacturing capability to be established in the UK, but if not then sales of electrodes could be made to the key
manufacturers in China, Korea and Japan.
It is only the graphene supply which is not at sufficient production levels to enable extremely high volume markets to be
addressed immediately, but Thomas Swan &Co Ltd. are scaling up production capability to 1 kg of graphene per day from
October 2014.