Send us Fan Mail

China pours more cement than any other country on earth and even a tiny share of that market can reshape a small materials company’s future. We sit down with Michael Bell, CEO of First Graphene, to unpack what it really takes to commercialise graphene at scale, not in a lab, but in customer products that ship, perform, and reorder.

We start with the fundamentals: what graphene is, why it behaves differently across suppliers, and why First Graphene’s early decision to build manufacturing capacity in Western Australia now pays off. With an established 100 tonne per year production platform, the conversation shifts to demand generation, customer conversion, and a pipeline that spans composites, polymers, conductive and thermal applications, and protective coatings.

Then we go deep on cement and concrete through PureGRAPH® CEM, where strength gains and durability improvements intersect with a decarbonisation story. Michael explains how lowering the clinker factor can cut CO2 emissions at scale, and why UK progress creates a springboard into bigger markets. That leads to the new MOU with Sixth Element, a major Chinese distributor in the 2D materials space, designed to validate and take PureGRAPH® CEM into the Chinese cement market with a partner-led approach.

We also cover the settled MITO® acquisition, what functionalised graphene oxide adds to the product portfolio, and why a real US footprint matters for aerospace and defence opportunities. If you care about advanced materials, construction innovation, and the practical path to revenue, this one is for you. Subscribe, share the episode with a mate, and leave a review so more people can find the show.