HVM Graphene + Conference, Oxford, UK

www.hvm-uk.com 15.5.2014

Gavin Farmer, Carbodeon

Carbodeon NanoDiamond Materials:

“Hard as Hell, but Cooler”

@carbodeon Carbodeon Ltd. Oy.

Material selection: Compromise…..

Won’t meet

next gen.

product specs

Not strong

enough

Too

brittle

Wrong

Thermal

properties

Regulatory

Issues

Doesn’t fit

manufacturing

process

Some

other

problem

Too

expensive

Material selection: Compromise…..

Material design: Combine…..

……. and Optimise Extreme

material Compromise

material

Optimised

properties,

process, cost.

Too expensive Base Material Something

Extreme!

Selected ratio

Property combination

Structural effects

Carbodeon NanoDiamond –

Extreme Material.

Strength

Hardness

Surface

Friction

Chemically

Inert

Optical

Properties

Dielectric

Thermal

Conductivity

With some unusual combinations

Where, What, & How

Polymer Coatings

Thermal Polymers Nicanite® Carbon Nitride

Plating and Anodising

Plating and Anodising

Nanodiamond suspension or dispersion added to solutions

Finer grain structure + embedded hard particles

1. Industrial machine parts with

hard chrome: durability

improved from 3.5 to 5.5 years

2. Gold plated electrical

connectors: wear performance

improved by 100%

3. Electroless nickel:

Abrasion resistance tripled

Polymer Coatings

NanoDiamond powder, suspension, or dispersion

Hard particles bonded to parent material.

Polymer reinforced/ restructured at molecular scale

1. PTFE and FEP coatings –

aqueous and solvent.

Wear improvement up to 50%

Friction reduction up to 66%

Surface finish improved 85%

2. Consumer product: unnamed coating formulations on unnamed

products: Wear performance improved by >3X

Thermal Management

Nanodiamond powders added to existing polymers & composites

Thermal conductivity without compromise to other properties

Electronics & LED – TIM & Heat

sinks: Thermal, dielectric and

structural properties

Thermoplastic Development:

Thermal conductivity increased

>25% with 0.1wt% NanoDiamond

Low Carbon Vehicles:

Additional Structural, frictional,

lightweighting &Tg improvements

Where, What, & How

Detonation Produced Nanodiamond – 4-6 nm diamond particles

Proven industrial process: tonnes/ yr scale

With surface

functional groups

Graphitic facets Sp3 Diamond

Core

uDiamond® Portfolio - Vivace Suspension

and Andante Dispersion

uDiamond Vivace

• A zeta-positive, 5 wt.% aqueous ND

suspension

• Agglomerated, zeta potential up to + 37 mV

• Standard grade for plating within acidic

region

uDiamond Andante

• A zeta-positive, 5 wt.% aqueous ND

dispersion

• Dispersion stable within pH range of 3 to 6

• Zeta potential up to + 52 mV

• Solvents including Di-Ethylene Glycol

Dispersion

stable within pH

3 to 6

Singe Digit ND

Dispersion

D90 = 4.6 nm

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 6 11

Zeta

po

ten

tial

(mV

)

pH

Andante

ZP (mV)

-60

-40

-20

0

20

40

1 6 11

Zeta

Po

ten

tial

(mV

)

pH

Vivace

ZP (mV)

Vivace, Andante, Andante (Diluted)

uDiamond® Portfolio - Vox D

A new, patented highly zeta

negative nanodiamond dispersion

• Fully carboxylated surface

• Zeta potentials up to -71 mV

• Dispersion stable in pH 5 to 12

Solvents

• Aqueous, 5 wt.%

• NMP, 2 wt %

• NEP, 1 wt%

• GBL, other solvents on the way

Applications

• Paints, resins, fluoropolymer

COOH

-80.0

-70.0

-60.0

-50.0

-40.0

-30.0

-20.0

-10.0

0.0

10.0

20.0

1.0 3.0 5.0 7.0 9.0 11.0 13.0

zp

(m

V)

pH

Robust stability

within pH 5 to 12

Singe Digit ND

Dispersion

D90 = 6.61 nm

Particle size distribution

Dispersion stability in pH range 2 to 13

uDiamond® Portfolio

Options for surface chemistry and morphology

Powders - agglomerated clusters of NanoDiamonds in >100nm

scale. Used where no compatible solvent available, e.g. certain

thermal polymers.

Suspensions – smaller agglomerates in liquid, easier to incorporate.

Dispersions – single digit 4-6 nm particles in stable dispersion

Very easy dispersion – direct mixing

Increased surface area

Low concentrations 0.05-1.0wt%, <1g/litre (in cases)

Paints, resins with no visual effects

Choice of Solvents

Also for electroplating @ pH>3

Where, What, & How

Property

Requirements,

Test Methods,

Economics

Material and

Process

Understanding

NanoDiamond

Material Selection

Dispersion

Methods &

Process

Optimisation

Communication

Where, What, & How

Unfortunately, it isn’t as simple as this!

Example Application - Electroplating

NanoDiamonds result in a denser, less cracked/ porpous stucture

leading to improved corrosion resistance.

Agglomerated NanoDiamond – 100nm plus scale

Cracks in conventional coating. NanoDiamond reinforced coating with

reduced cracking.

50 µ

m

uDiamond® Vivace With CrVI

Conventional HardChrome

High PerformanceHard Chrome

Typical uDiamond®Vivace Hard

Chrome

OptimiseduDiamond® Vivace

Hard Chrome

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

Microhardness (HV)

Conventional HardChrome

High PerformanceHard Chrome

Typical uDiamond®Vivace Hard Chrome

OptimiseduDiamond® Vivace

Hard Chrome

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Wear Rate (weight loss%)

Conventional HardChrome

High PerformanceHard Chrome

TypicaluDiamond®Vivace Hard

Chrome

OptimiseduDiamond®Vivace Hard

Chrome

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Corrosion Rate (g/m2.yr) Key improvements:

• Microhardness: 20-50%

• Wear resistance: >100%

• Corrosion resistance: 50-100%

• Friction coefficient: -30%

Hurdle:

• 10g/litre agglomerated NanoDiamond

uDiamond® Andante in Electroless Nickel

Medium phosphorous

electroless nickel

No agglomeration –

single digit dispersion

Annealing at 350 °C

Nanodiamond

surface

functionalization has

a big impact in

electroless processes

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02

Mic

roh

ard

ness [

HV

]

ND concentration [g/l]

As-deposited

Annealed

Microhardness of electroless

nickel with and without ND’s.

Annealing at 350 °C.

Introducing Carbodeon’s Plating Lab

Material analysis – wear testing

Electroless & Electrolytic Nickel

Trivalent Chromium

SEM-images of 0,05 g/l ND containing E/N samples

4µm 400nm

Electroless Nickel – Preliminary in-house test

results

Medium phosphorous (P =

5-9%)

No heat treatment

Wear resistance measured

using Taber 5135, CS-10

rolls ,1 kg load

TWI = average weight loss

[mg] / 1000 revolutions

Small change in hardness,

large change in wear

resistance

Diamond composition in the

plating is approx 0.2-0.4wt%

Diamond cost is lower than

the Nickel cost

�0 g/l �0,05 g/l �0,1 g/l

TWI 18.2 5.6 6.8

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

14.0

16.0

18.0

20.0

Average Taber Wear Indexes of Electroless Nickel with various

ND-concentrations

Example Coating Application

NanoDiamond-Fluoropolymer Coatings

Over 500 samples made and tested

to date.

Suspension grade:

Improvements made, based on around

2wt% addition.

Dispersion grade:

Matching improvements made using

0.05-0.25wt%

Friction, Wear and Surface Finish

Improvements

Reference With ND’s

50µm 50µm

1.0mm 1.0mm

Wear Properties – PTFE (Aqueous)

ND concentrations, in final coatings

• Agglomerating grade, 1 wt.%

• Single Digit grade, 0.1 wt.%

Wear properties studied up to 2000-3500 cycles

Up to 50% improvement in wear properties , up to 66% friction reduction

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000

Mass r

ed

ucti

on

(m

g)

Cycles

PTFE_REF - #1

PTFE_KT - #1

PTFE_Ktsingle - #1

REF. PTFE

1.0wt%

AGGLOM. ND

0.1wt%

SINGLE DIGIT

DISPERSION

Taber analyses

Friction Properties – PTFE (Aq) Example

Friction tests with Allegro ND – not the latest single digit dispersion

ND concentrations varied between 0.1 to 3.0 wt.%

Significant improvements already with very low ND additions

66% reduction received with 2 wt.% ND concentration

0.000

0.020

0.040

0.060

0.080

0.100

0.120

0.140

0.160

1R 0.1 0.5 1.0 2.0 3.0

Fri

cti

on

co

eff

icie

nt

ND concentration (wt.%)

Allegro

Friction coefficient averages

Friction - Wear Collection Plating, coatings, nanocomposites

Powertrain

components

(friction, wear)

Chassis

components

(friction,

corrosion,

elastomer

properties)

Interior & Exterior

(wear resistant

resins &

coatings, high

performance

composites)

Automotive, Aerospace & Defence, Industrial, Electronics etc.

Carbodeon – Providing You a Unique

Advantage through New Materials

Application

Techniques

Material

Technology

Unique

Customer

Value

Cooperative

Projects

Contact

Us!

gavin.farmer@carbodeon.com / +44 7768 587105