Graphene: The Miracle Material

Graphene, a much-touted miracle material, was only discovered in 2004. Since then, it has permeated many different industries with products and solutions that deliver improved performance or new and innovative capabilities. Now, just a short time after its discovery, it’s beginning to make its way into textiles and apparel.

What the Heck Is Graphene?

Discovered in 2004 at the University of Manchester in the UK, graphene consists of a single layer of atoms arranged in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice nanostructure. According to Wikipedia, “Graphene has become a valuable and useful nanomaterial due to its exceptionally high tensile strength, electrical conductivity, transparency, and being the thinnest two-dimensional material in the world.” The work of the researchers was recognized with a Nobel Prize. Graphene is attractive in apparel and other textile applications due to properties it adds, including anti-bacterial, odor neutralizing, and thermal regulation characteristics. It can also add strength, including abrasion and cut resistance, and can provide UV resistance and mite and mosquito repellency as well. There is good reason to call it a miracle material!

Graphene in Apparel

Graphene-enhanced apparel products are beginning to hit the market in applications such as socks, underwear, denim, jackets, sportswear, and even home décor like bedding. There are two main ways that graphene can be incorporated into textiles to add these characteristics. It can be applied as a coating, or it can be bonded to the fibers, such as in the process developed by Graphene One for its family of Kyorene fibers. When used in a surface coating, graphene, in the form of graphene oxide, can add strength, including improved resistance to wear, abrasion, and tearing. Using AATCC test standards, a graphene-coated textile should be able to withstand 30 to 50 washings and other stresses. First Graphene, an Australian company, is one provider of these types of coatings. At the height of the pandemic, graphene was also being used in face masks, due to its antiviral and antibacterial properties. Early on, there was concern about graphene particles getting into the wearer’s lungs, and lack of clarity on what the long-term effects of this might be. Better manufacturing techniques and several studies have mitigated these concerns, and graphene face masks can be found on Amazon and other places. The other process, bonding to the fiber, brings different characteristics to the garment or fabric. I recently attended a webinar hosted by the Graphene Council that dug into the bonding process used by Graphene One and included panelists representing two Graphene One customers: Kontoor Brands, owner of the Wrangler and Lee brands, represented by Dhruv Arawal; and Graphene-X, a Hong Kong-based brand that adds graphene to high tech clothing and gear, represented by Jorge Barros. Graphene One was represented in the session by Dave Vanek. Terrance Barkan, Graphene Council Executive Director, moderated the event. I first became acquainted with Graphene One and its Kyorene yarns at a trade show a couple years prior to the pandemic. I was interested in the feel of the yarn—as a long-time fiber artist, I wondered if it would feel any different from other yarns, and there was no noticeable difference. The yarn I saw was grey (carbon is black), and during the webinar, Vanek stated that the company was in the process of bringing to market a white yarn, “white graphene.” To better understand how this unique yarn can benefit the fashion industry, it is helpful to hear the stories of two customers who had quite different journeys.

Kontoor Brands: The Innovation Process

During the webinar, Arawal explained that Kontoor owns two iconic brands, Wrangler and Lee. His role in the company is pursuit of global innovation for those brands. He noted that they were aware of graphene, known as a wonder material with its inventors having received the Nobel prize. He first ran into Graphene One in 2016 or 2017, likely at the same show where I first saw it. At that point, Kyorene had not yet been commercialized. A goal for the Wrangler and Lee brands is to give consumers clothing they can be comfortable in, and he was intrigued by the characteristics graphene could bring to the brand.

At a large company such as Kontoor, it can take time and a lot of convincing to work through bringing a new product to market. Because Arawal learned about Kyorene so early, he was able to collaborate with Graphene One during the subsequent development process. He stated that a key concern was whether graphene could be applied to the yarns in a consistent way because it was comprised of such tiny particles. Vanek explains that yes, it is consistent, and that the graphene is covalently bonded into the material and as such the graphene is not only consistently applied but cannot be liberated. The graphene is there for the life of the fiber (even if the fiber is subsequently recycled), and because the graphene oxide nanoparticles are completely encapsulated in the polymer, it doesn’t change the physical properties of the polymer, saying, “Our nylon fiber is just like a regular nylon fiber; our polyester is similar to regular polyester.” The fibers may be similar to regular fibers, but the characteristics of graphene are incorporated into the fiber, giving it the thermal, antimicrobial, and strength characteristics that are not present in traditional fibers. The graphene oxide only comprises 1% to 2% of the fiber content. Kontoor’s first products were launched in Asia as part of its winter collection, meant for cooler temperatures. That’s where the thermal characteristics of graphene came into play. Kontoor’s first product was a jacket liner, then denim jeans, and now Koontoor is developing several other products.

Graphene-X

Barros describes a different journey, basically from a consumer standpoint. He arrived in Hong Kong in 2017 and found that due to the small size of homes there, buying criteria was not so much about how much something cost, but more about whether it could fit in your home. How does that apply to apparel? Well, as Barros points out, do you have space for 10 different jackets, and do you really need 10 different jackets? A personal experience also added to his drive to create more durable and more versatile clothing. During a hike on the highest mountain in Malaysia, Mt. Kinabalu, there was a hole in his jacket caused by abrasion from a branch. He explains, “It started raining, a huge storm, and I was completely soaked and frozen by the end of the hike. I thought there should be a better material.”

That led to his discovery of how graphene oxide could be added to apparel to solve some of these issues, ultimately resulting in the development of his first product, the Alpha Series jacket, a three-layer shell jacket with graphene integrated. Being new to the industry, he put the product on Kickstarter and ended up being one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns ever, with over 2,000 backers from over a hundred countries that bought the first jacket. The most interesting part of Barros’ story is the durability testing that was done, including the Martindale abrasion and pilling test. He explains, “This consists of putting a piece of fabric on the equipment, basically a rubbing machine, and making X amount of reps until the fabric fails.” “As a point of reference, military grade gear is required to withstand at least 20,000 reps,” Barros notes. “We submitted the Alpha Series jacket for a test of 100,000 reps and our Omega pants for 150,000. The lab didn’t want to do this level of testing, saying it was pointless because the fabric would fail long before that. But we insisted. And the products withstood the tests with flying colors!” More durable clothing will also contribute to the move away from Fast Fashion—an approach that is not sustainable at all since it is designed to be worn or used only a few times and does not have a long life. Vanek comments, “People in our industry will talk about 30 washes or 50 washes for testing apparel durability. But if you wear something often, 50 washes can be as little as one or two years, and with a surface coating, it may no longer have the desired characteristics. With bonded graphene oxide, it stays for the life of the product, and that could be 10 or 20 years. That’s how we typically talk about sustainability.”

What’s Next?

On International Women’s Day, an amazing panel of graphene industry leaders, including company founders, scientists, researchers, and experts gave a 90-minute insightful snapshot on the state of graphene commercialization. These stories illustrate only some early-adopter apparel made with graphene. It will be interesting to see what other textile products will eventually use this miracle material to improve performance!  

About the Author

Cary Sherburne writes for What They Think and other publications, and has written several feature articles for AATCC, especially concerning digital printing and new technologies.