We chatted with Rich DePoto from Uyemura International about silver graphite dispersion coatings.

"Our product line has — and the approach we've always taken — is the use of metallurgical alloys to improve metal properties," DePoto says. "Although we have delved into dispersions, and we have several products that are dispersions on the nickel side, we have not considered that strategy on the silver side."

DePoto talks about the new products that Uyemura will release soon that will address silver graphite dispersion coatings and other issues that the electric vehicle market desires more of.

“When we evaluated the outcomes and what was in the wish list that the automotive EV people were looking for, we started asking if the alloys that we've come up with ever really solve that in a way that would get them to make a change,” he says. “We found that the risk-reward just wasn't connecting with them. And so we started thinking outside the box.”

That’s when Uyemura’s research team began looking at what they could do to “matrix the great conductive properties of silver with the dispersion option,” DePoto says. Uyemura then looked at several dispersion options that could do this, and they landed on a pretty common material: graphite.

“The properties of graphite — which are pretty exciting — is that it has two things,” DePoto says. “It has great lubricity and shedding properties for a low friction, which is great, but it also allows us to preserve what everyone loves about silver, which is its conductivity.”

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