Patent Analytics Report on Graphene

This version of the report is deprecated, please find an updated version of Patent Landscape Report on Graphene by Patseer Pro here.

Introduction

Graphene is an allotrope of carbon, whose structure is one-atom-thick planar sheets of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. The term graphene was coined as a combination of graphite and the suffix -ene by Hanns-Peter Boehm, who described single-layer carbon foils in 1962. Graphene is most easily visualized as an atomic-scale chicken wire made of carbon atoms and their bonds. The crystalline or “flake” form of graphite consists of many graphene sheets stacked together.

The carbon-carbon bond length in graphene is about 0.142 nanometers. Graphene sheets stack to form graphite with an interplanar spacing of 0.335 nm, which means that a stack of 3 million sheets would be only one millimeter thick. Graphene is the basic structural element of some carbon allotropes including graphite, charcoal, carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. It can also be considered as an indefinitely large aromatic molecule, the limiting case of the family of flat polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Because of its range of extraordinary properties, people are considering using graphene in a myriad of different applications. For example, because graphene is so strong, people want to use it to reinforce plastics, making them conductive at the same time. Because it’s transparent and conducts electricity, people want to use it in applications like mobile phone screens, touch screens, TV screens and so on. People are also considering using it to go beyond silicon technology and make our integrated circuits even denser and speedier. Those are just few examples.

It is lighter than a feather, stronger than steel, yet incredibly flexible and more conductive than copper. It has been hailed as “the miracle material”, its possible uses apparently almost endless.

Points covered:

• Overview of the top companies involved in graphene and their publication trend
• Focus on the methods of producing graphene
• Trends for current & emerging applications of graphene and their patent activity
• Companies focusing primarily on methods and applications of graphene

Technical Segmentation (Patent Categories)

To get deeper insights record set for Graphene was classified as follows:

By Methods

By Applications

Publication Trend

What has been the publication trend for graphene?

Patents related to graphene can be traced back to 2000 and the real surge in the activity around this technology has happened in the last 5 years.

It’s clear the current activity around these technologies is likely to continue seeing more innovation in the near future with more number of records being published as 2013 ends.

Top Players

The top organizations are:

Assignee Trends

Considering cumulative patent filing trends Samsung has the most remarkable figures for filings for graphene. Interestingly, Korea Advanced Inst also shows an increase in terms of filings.

Research activity around world

How is research around graphene spread across different countries?

In terms of regional pockets where patent protection is being sought most frequently for these technologies, CN leads the count, followed by the US and KR. The table below ranks top priority countries and helps provide an indication of where innovation in this area is originating: