--- title: "Smoltek Hydrogen has achieved A4 size plasma" canonical_url: "https://www.smoltek.com/smoltek-hydrogen-has-achieved-a4-size-plasma/7615/" date: 2024-06-25 author: "Fredrik Liljeberg" featured_image: "https://www.smoltek.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/f3d7c4_773cbfa7d72d4ffea35b0ccebf810a1amv2.png" categories: - name: "News" url: "https://www.smoltek.com/category/news.md" tags: - name: "carbon nanofibers" url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/carbon-nanofibers.md" - name: "deeptech" url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/deeptech.md" - name: "electrolyzers" url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/electrolyzers.md" - name: "greenhydrogen" url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/greenhydrogen.md" - name: "hydrogen" url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/hydrogen.md" - name: "innovation" url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/innovation.md" - name: "nanotechnology" url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/nanotechnology.md" - name: "plasma" url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/plasma.md" - name: "R&D-tool" url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/rd-tool.md" - name: "shafiqkabir" url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/shafiqkabir.md" - name: "smolGROW" url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/smolgrow.md" --- # Smoltek Hydrogen has achieved A4 size plasma Smoltek Hydro­gen has suc­cess­ful­ly refur­bished the in-house devel­oped pro­pri­etary PECVD R&D tool, from its 6‑inch diam­e­ter area, to be com­pat­i­ble with A4 size. This cor­re­sponds to an expan­sion of area by more than 3 times, and sta­ble plas­ma cov­er­ing the entire A4 area has been achieved. > By expand­ing our capa­bil­i­ties in the R&D tool we gain use­ful knowl­edge that will pre­pare and speed up the trans­fer of the growth recipes from lab­o­ra­to­ry tech­nol­o­gy in the R&D tool to indus­tri­al tech­nol­o­gy in the [Pro­to­type Coater\*](https://www.smoltek.com/smoltek-hydrogen-has-finalized-design-of-a-prototype-coater-tool-for-carbon-nanofibers/7438/) , why achiev­ing A4 size plas­ma is an impor­tant step­ping stone towards a scal­able indus­tri­al process. > > Shafiq Kabir, Head of Vol­ume Process­es at Smoltek Hydrogen ![Shafiq Kabir in the MC2 laboratory, in the remodeling of Smoltek's plasma tool.](https://www.smoltek.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/a4-plasma-remodeling-shafiq-1200x675.webp) Shafiq Kabir in the MC2 lab­o­ra­to­ry, in the remod­el­ing of Smoltek’s plas­ma tool. Cur­rent­ly Smoltek’s PTE cell mate­r­i­al pro­to­types are man­u­fac­tured with lab­o­ra­to­ry tech­nolo­gies, and the car­bon nanofibers are grown using the R&D PECVD tool which up until now has been capa­ble of coat­ing up to approx­i­mate­ly 6‑inch diam­e­ter area. Elec­trolyz­er cells and their con­stituent mate­ri­als are often rec­tan­gu­lar or square shaped and elec­trol­y­sis test sys­tems are typ­i­cal­ly designed for square shaped pro­to­types, so is the test sys­tem used by Smoltek Hydro­gen, why it is more suit­able to adapt the tools for rec­tan­gu­lar or square shaped instead of round ones. A larg­er rec­tan­gu­lar shape also pro­vides high­er flex­i­bil­i­ty by being able to pro­duce both sin­gle large pro­to­type or a high­er quan­ti­ty of mul­ti­ple small ones dur­ing a sin­gle run, which in turn enables faster devel­op­ment and increased capac­i­ty to pro­vide pro­to­types to cus­tomers based on their size needs.  **Plas­ma – fun­da­men­tal for car­bon nanofiber growth** Plas­ma is one of the four fun­da­men­tal states of mat­ter, along­side sol­id, liq­uid, and gas, and it is char­ac­ter­ized by the elec­trons being sep­a­rat­ed from their par­ent atoms or mol­e­cules, which sim­pli­fied means that plas­ma is a cloud of elec­trons and a source of extra ener­gy in the sys­tem. Plas­ma has unique prop­er­ties and achiev­ing a sta­ble plas­ma is essen­tial for Smoltek’s process of car­bon nanofiber growth on the porous trans­port lay­er (PTL) for its elec­trolyz­er cell material.  > The suc­cess­ful rebuild of the in-house PECVD R&D tool to A4 size plas­ma is an ini­tial result at one of our growth recipes, and the focus now is to fur­ther improve and fine-tune the hard­ware and recipe, and val­i­da­tion by grow­ing nanofibers on PTLs. > > Shafiq Kabir, Head of Vol­ume Process­es at Smoltek Hydrogen ![Smoltek's proprietary A4 Plasma Image R&D-tool at Chalmers MC2 laboratory](https://www.smoltek.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/a4-plasma-size.webp) Active plas­ma of A4 size inside the Smoltek pro­pri­etary PECVD R&D tool for car­bon nanofiber growth, as shown through a view­port into the cham­ber which is under vac­u­um. The plas­ma, seen as a grey­ish cloud over the entire heater area, is cre­at­ed in the elec­tri­cal field between the top and bot­tom elec­trode, out of which the lat­ter also acts as heater and dic­tates the max­i­mum coat­ing area. The porous trans­port lay­er is placed on the sub­strate heater when grow­ing car­bon nanofibers. ![Slide 5 H2 Roapmap](https://www.smoltek.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/slide-5-h2-roapmap.webp) The devel­op­ment of the indus­tri­al man­u­fac­tur­ing con­cept for Smoltek Hydrogen’s Elec­trolyz­er Cell Mate­r­i­al is at its final stages, with aim on being final­ized dur­ing 2024. \* [Smoltek Hydro­gen has final­ized design of a pro­to­type coater](https://www.smoltek.com/smoltek-hydrogen-has-finalized-design-of-a-prototype-coater-tool-for-carbon-nanofibers/7438/) > **Fact box: Smoltek Hydrogen’s PTE cell mate­r­i­al**: > Smoltek Hydro­gen is devel­op­ing a nanofiber based porous trans­port elec­trode (PTE) cell mate­r­i­al for the anode in PEM elec­trolyz­ers. The cell mate­r­i­al con­sists of a sin­tered porous tita­ni­um lay­er (PTL) where the sur­face area has been enhanced with ver­ti­cal nanofibers, a con­for­mal plat­inum cor­ro­sion pro­tec­tion and ultra-thin nanopar­ti­cle lay­er of irid­i­um cat­a­lyst. The mate­r­i­al is one of the lay­ers in an elec­trolyz­er cell. When man­u­fac­tur­ing elec­trolyz­ers, a large num­ber of elec­trolyz­er cells are assem­bled into a cell stack, which is the main ele­ment in the elec­trolyz­er as it is where the elec­trol­y­sis takes place and hydro­gen is produced.