key elements of phenegra
Dr. Gordon Chiu's Vision
Dr. Chiu started his work with graphene over 10 years ago. As a young scientist, he was focused on what graphene “could do” instead of what graphene “should do.” Since then, he learned that unlocking the reactive properties of graphene can lead to the formation of astounding super solutions for enhancing other materials.
Reactive Graphene
Climate change from human activities brings serious threats to society and everyday life. Examples of efforts to resist the threats include the increasing trend of electrical vehicles , plastic use reduction, and replacing traditional light bulbs with LEDs. Many scientific papers show that burning fossil fuels produces heat trapping gasses that raise the planet’s temperature, and threaten all life as we know it. Reducing petroleum-derived energy and ingredients would make a powerful impact.
Graphene is the only known 2-dimensional material made purely of carbon. It is the basic layer that naturally forms graphite, and it is not petroleum-derived.
Dr. Chiu studied several datasets while working on graphene. Some resulted in particularly positive applications that went above and beyond human imagination. These were outliers that did not contain free graphenes because they were completely reacted. This is different from using graphene as an additive. It's a critical transformation that warrants great attention. Imagine applying this higher standard to particular graphene projects – like saving the planet?
Why insist on graphene being algorithmically driven to explore ecology solutions?
It has been only 13 years since the graphene discoverers won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Now we know that it can be useful for so much more than mundane applications like better bicycles and fishing poles. Graphene’s cousin is carbon nanotubes, and its profile is filled with these everyday applications. Using proper algorithmic filters, we will focus on graphenes that create profound ecological value.
REACTIVE GRAPHENE APPLICATIONS
Recycling Plastics
Transforming Asphalt
Cleaning Oil Spills
Limited strength cycles reduce plastics’ utility from recycling. Furthermore, since every plastic has a different recycle life, it becomes necessary to separate them: an expensive and inefficient process. Graphene has been proven to strengthen plastics in Dr. Chiu’s work at Rutgers, but the use of those patents are not for enhancing recy
Limited strength cycles reduce plastics’ utility from recycling. Furthermore, since every plastic has a different recycle life, it becomes necessary to separate them: an expensive and inefficient process. Graphene has been proven to strengthen plastics in Dr. Chiu’s work at Rutgers, but the use of those patents are not for enhancing recycling. Applying his research in this area would produce value creation in an entirely different way.
Cleaning Oil Spills
Transforming Asphalt
Cleaning Oil Spills
Imagine graphene sponges. Over a decade of research was stalled when graphene sponges received minimal interest from the petroleum industry for cleaning up oil spills. By using a similar structure, Dr. Chiu made a case for a surface catalyst on the graphene sponge. Using this graphene scaffolding for catalytic breakdown of pesticides re
Imagine graphene sponges. Over a decade of research was stalled when graphene sponges received minimal interest from the petroleum industry for cleaning up oil spills. By using a similar structure, Dr. Chiu made a case for a surface catalyst on the graphene sponge. Using this graphene scaffolding for catalytic breakdown of pesticides recently became a collaboration at Wharton’s social enterprise project and Harvard’s analytics.
Transforming Asphalt
Transforming Asphalt
Transforming Asphalt
Asphalt makes roads, but how can we make it better and less toxic? How can we recover and re-purpose it when it inevitably breaks down (i.e. potholes)?
CASE STUDY: Reversing pollution from water
Phenegra is leading the charge to sustain the Earth. It has already demonstrated that reactive graphene in materials (RGiMs) is a game changer can help asphalt withstand the intense insults of climate change and heavy electric vehicles. Now Phenegra is poised for the challenges of reversing pollution especially in water..
Working with a series of like-minded collaborators Phenegra is positioned to become a leading asset recovery company for land and waterways damaged by environmental contamination, starting with uranium contamination. This has trillion dollar implications.
RGiMs can take new forms through an origami like transformation. The transformed material was featured as a super light weight foam sitting on a flower petal in Dr. Chiu’s 2014 TEDx:
https://youtu.be/4cHoSQQ8I_M?si=9A8XYpST3dTFxRx2
Dr. Chiu’s long experience in graphene origami has led to RGiMs applications to remove toxic chemicals. A 2021 study at MIT demonstrated that this structure can rapidly and effectively remove uranium contamination invisible in bodies of water.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202102633
With a series of collaborators Phenegra is leading the charge to make it uniquely capable to recover assets damaged by environmental contamination. Uranium contamination is a big one because so far no one has found a more efficient and less polluting source of energy than uranium fission. But the high cost and safety concerns of disposing of depleted uranium continues to dog the industry and make governments wary.
Beyond incremental value toward extreme value. RGiMs have a potential role to help with risk mitigation but also other unforeseen opportunities. In the future when humanity engages in deep space travel it will need a high energy dense solution. RGiMs can attach themselves through reactive chemistry to create functional pieces of armor. They can have high value in radiation protection, electronics shielding and mechanical resistance, and mechanical healing of craft damage. These applications may have extreme value both on Earth and beyond.
In less than a year Phenegra is already matching RGiMs technology to applications that need such solutions. Through focused research and proper matching of needs Phenegra seeks to develop other advanced applications with different substrates. It is analogous to matching the sword Excalibur with young Arthur in “The Once and Future King.”
