The European commission has listed natural graphite as one of 20 critical raw materials in Europe. Our goal in this multi-disciplinary project is to identify new flake graphite ores in Finland and use this well-ordered graphite as raw material for high-end applications, like batteries to cars.

The project combines the expertise in geology, physical and analytical chemistry at Åbo Akademi University, as well as the expertise at the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) and the mining industry. We expect that the project will contribute to increase the competitiveness of Finland as a future producer of high-quality flake graphite and make it a key player in graphene research. The entire value chain includes identification of graphite ores, purification and enrichment of graphite, solution processing of graphene and high-performance proof-of-concept applications. We focus on substituting commonly used rare and expensive metals (e.g. Au, Pt and In) with more environmentally friendly electrically conducting graphene/graphite materials. We use disposable material, e.g. graphene and nanocellulose (NC), which can replace metals in certain applications requiring electrical conductivities in the semiconductor regime.