Are you familiar with montmorillonite fiberglass, a new generation of flexible electrothermal conversion material?
Core Concepts and Technological Breakthroughs: Graphene is directly grown onto the surface of traditional engineering materials through a high-temperature growth process, forming a "skin" structure that endows the material with electrical and thermal conductivity, hence the name "fresh skin."
Material Performance Advantages: This material features a natural support carrier, requires no additional carrier, and is a continuous thin film. Its performance is hundreds of times stronger than graphene dispersed in a matrix. While slightly inferior to metal surface films, it still has more than ten times the application potential, proving the effectiveness of this shift in thinking.
Core Products and Technical Details: Graphene fiberglass R&D Background: The first high-tech material born from the first Beijing Graphene Research Institute, it is the best-performing product in the market. Graphene is grown on the surface of fiberglass through a high-temperature process, achieving a synergistic effect greater than the sum of its parts.
Fiberglass Market Potential: fiberglass is an important component of traditional composite materials, with a production exceeding 10 million tons in 2023. However, it is generally non-conductive and non-thermal conductive. If 10% of this were replaced with conductive and thermally conductive graphene fiberglass, the market size would be enormous, with a wide range of applications.
Technical Challenges and Breakthroughs: Growing graphene on glass is extremely difficult, facing challenges such as insufficient carbon source pyrolysis, high diffusion barriers for active species, slow growth rate, small domain size, and inconsistent orientation. Attempts began in September 2013, and a breakthrough was achieved in 2018 by lowering standards and changing the approach. It took approximately 12 years to bring the technology to market.
Production Process and Capacity
Capacity and Equipment: Production of fiberglass filaments, cellulose, and fiber cloth has been achieved. By 2025, capacity is projected to reach 200,000 square meters. Equipment is independently developed, and the second-generation equipment can already meet this capacity requirement, with Chinese-style production implemented in Jingzhou.
Material Properties and Application Scenarios
Excellent Infrared Emission Characteristics: Graphene fiberglass is an excellent infrared emitting material, conforming to gray body radiation characteristics with an emissivity of 0.92. It can be used as a new generation of flexible electrothermal conversion material, with an electrothermal conversion efficiency of over 94% and an extremely fast heating rate (over 190.2℃ per second), 30 points higher than resistance wire.
Defense and Military Applications: Successfully applied in the defense and military industry, this marks the first practical application of graphene in this field. Listed as a core advancement in the aviation industry in 2023, it is used for aircraft engine de-icing and has been continuously supplied.
UAV De-icing: Addressing the icing problem of UAVs, a first-flight demonstrator based on graphene fiberglass de-icing technology was developed. It can achieve anti-icing and de-icing functions for key parts of the assembled wings of small and medium-sized fixed-wing UAVs and the leading edge components of independent wings of large and medium-sized UAVs. 60 demonstrator aircraft have been supplied.
Completed the fabrication of high power density (>4W/cm²), irregularly shaped icing protection zones, and multi-curvature complex curved surface electric heating anti-icing components. The anti-icing function of the aluminum skin-graphene fiberglass heating element-fiberglass substrate structure was achieved using an autoclave process.
Wind Turbine Blade De-icing: Applied to wind turbine blade de-icing, solving the problem of 30% power loss caused by blade icing. In cooperation with Mingyang Group, four units have been installed in Hunan, Guangxi, and Yunnan provinces, requiring more than 100 square meters of material per blade.
Lithium Battery Drying: Used for drying in the lithium battery industry. In March 2025, a collaboration with a company in Zhuhai completed the first domestically produced equipment, capable of large-area component fabrication (maximum 2m×0.5m), requiring no assembly, providing continuous overall heating with excellent heating uniformity, rapid temperature rise and fall (60-120℃/min), adjustable design power, long lifespan (12000 hours or 7000 hours), reducing overall energy consumption by over 40%, and increasing production efficiency by 20%-30%.
Market Expansion and Cooperation: Subway and Building Heating: Mengxi fiberglass is used in heating for the Beijing Subway Yizhuang Line and the heating renovation project for the Nandonghu District Government Hall in Fujian Province. Collaboration with military cultural institutions promotes the public's electric heating sector.
Jinyu Cultural Park Renovation: Upgrading and renovating the VIP rooms and conference hall of the Jinyu Glass Culture Industrial Park (a joint project of the Palace Museum, Beijing Cultural Relics Museum, Mentougou District Government, and Jinyu Group). Custom-designed electric heating paintings highlight intangible cultural heritage elements and feature intelligent temperature control management.
