Presenters Name: Denis Wright

Employment Title:  General Manager, Graphene Materials

Company: Sparc Technologies

Biography:  Denis has a PhD in Organic Chemistry with over 20 years’ experience in technical based leadership and management roles. Throughout his career, he has been involved with both local and global coatings companies with functional materials such as anticorrosive and chemical resistant coatings for industrial use. Denis has held senior regional management roles in the protective and marine coatings field within Wattyl/Sherwin Williams, in Australia. Denis is a member of the Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP – formerly NACE). Denis is also a member of the ACA Coatings Technical Committee.     Denis joined Sparc in April 2022

Presentation Title:  The journey of Graphene and its Utilisation in Protective Coatings

Presentation Abstract: Graphene was discovered in 2004 and since then has been used in various applications, including protective coatings, with varying success.    Initially, there was a lot of excitement about its potential, leading to extensive research and efforts to protect intellectual property worldwide. However, this enthusiasm didn’t immediately translate into using graphene in actual products due to technical challenges, misconceptions about what constitutes real graphene, and the high cost of production.

In recent years, the situation has changed. Now, there’s better understanding and data on graphene’s utilisation, resulting in improved performance properties that result in improved coating durability and resilience