The government is establishing a collaborative framework among industry, academia, and research institutions to commercialize graphene, often referred to as the 'dream material.' As heat dissipation issues have emerged as a critical bottleneck in advanced industries such as semiconductors, electric vehicle batteries, and data centers, this initiative aims to create an initial market based on these challenges.
On July 8, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held a kickoff meeting for the 'Graphene Industrialization Network' at KINTEX in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, with experts from industry, academia, and research institutions. This meeting was organized as part of a project to lead a hyper-innovative economy, focusing on building a collaborative hub involving demand companies, supply companies, and research institutions to address the challenges of graphene commercialization.
Graphene is a two-dimensional nanomaterial consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. It is recognized as a key foundational material for advanced industries due to its exceptional thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, strength, surface area, flexibility, and transparency. Graphene's thermal conductivity is over 13 times greater than that of copper, its electrical conductivity is more than 1.6 times superior to silver, and its strength exceeds that of steel by more than 200 times.
Prior to the meeting, the ministry unveiled a 'Graphene Commercialization Technology Roadmap' developed after gathering industry feedback since October of last year. The roadmap outlines a strategy that begins with leveraging graphene's outstanding conductivity to solve heat issues in advanced industries and aims to expand its application across various sectors in the long term.
Specifically, the plan is to start addressing heat management issues in 2026, develop materials to respond to AI bottlenecks in 2027, and broaden industrial applications from 2028. Additionally, the goal is to secure over five key heat dissipation products for advanced industries by 2030 and achieve commercialization results exceeding 100 billion won based on industrial demand.
The initial application area for graphene commercialization is heat dissipation, aligning with the technological changes in advanced industries. Effective heat management is crucial for ensuring performance and reliability amid the increasing power consumption in semiconductor high integration, high-output electric vehicle batteries, and data centers.
Participants in the meeting agreed on the need to continuously identify new demands and applications in the industry, given graphene's diverse properties. Therefore, the Graphene Industrialization Network will focus on understanding the material and quality standards required by demand companies, discovering demonstration projects, and addressing commercialization challenges.
The Graphene Industrialization Network will operate with an emphasis on joint demonstrations, demand linkage, and problem-solving. It will identify joint demonstration projects based on the material and quality standards required by demand companies and support matching between demand and supply companies, as well as the discovery of new applications. The network also plans to address commercialization challenges related to standards, certification, and regulations that arise during the demonstration process.
Choi Woo-hyuk, Director of Advanced Industry Policy at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, stated, 'Graphene is a material with the potential to innovate advanced industries. We will closely support the roadmap and industrialization network as a starting point to translate this potential into practical applications and initial demand creation.'
* This article has been translated by AI.
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