Graphene masterbatch cuts polyethylene film thickness by 20-35% in commercial packaging

A 1% addition of graphene masterbatch to a polyethylene nails packaging film, developed to stop punctures during the packaging process, delivered a 25% thickness reduction from 87 to 65 micrometers, approximately 72 metric tons less plastic used per year, 40% less packaging waste and a 9.8% cost reduction. The project, the first commercial success case for the Revora Poly-G graphene masterbatch line from Colorfix Masterbatches (Colombo, Paraná, Brazil), collected several international awards, including a WorldStar 2024 award from the World Packaging Organisation and a Brazilian Packaging Association (ABRE) award.

The results were presented in a Sept. 2 webinar hosted by the Advanced Carbons Council (ACC) under the title "Less Plastic. Same Performance. Greater Impact: How Graphene-Enhanced PE Films Can Help Brand Owners Reduce Packaging Footprint." Terrance Barkan, executive director of the ACC, moderated the session, presented by ACC member company Colorfix.

A masterbatch platform for industrial graphene

Francielo Fardo, CEO of Colorfix Masterbatches, opened with an introduction to the company. In business since 1990, Colorfix develops color, additive and specialty masterbatches for plastics processors; it created its Revora sustainability platform in 2021 and added Poly-G, graphene applied to industry, to that platform in 2025. "With Revora Poly-G, our graphene masterbatch technology, we aim to improve film performance while reducing plastic consumption and its environmental footprint," Fardo said.

Fardo introduced the technical team behind the line. Valdirene Peressinotto, head of product for graphene at Colorfix, is a chemist (UNICAMP) with an M.Sc. in materials science (CDTN), more than 20 years of industrial experience and a specialization in nanomaterials, nanotechnology and graphene. Josué Cremonezzi, product engineer for graphene at Colorfix, holds a Ph.D. in materials engineering and nanotechnology from Mackenzie Presbyterian University with research experience at the University of Mons (Belgium), and works directly with customers to optimize Poly-G performance in production.

The company positions Poly-G, among the first graphene masterbatches available at industrial scale worldwide, as a plug-and-play solution rather than a raw material. "Our expertise is not just in graphene. It's in making graphene work in polymers at industrial scale," Fardo said.

Beyond that first case, Fardo listed segments where Poly-G is delivering commercial results: technical packaging, baling films, valve bags, stretch films, garbage and shopping bags, shrink films, agricultural films, bag-in-box liners, big bags (FIBCs), irrigation pipes, concrete reinforcement fibers and beverage crates. Across the 1,331 metric tons of flexible packaging produced since the technology's 2023 launch, Colorfix estimates around 560 metric tons of resin saved, equivalent to approximately 22 shipping containers of resin not produced, transported or processed.

Product lines and co-development

Cremonezzi presented the technical portion of the session. Graphene, first isolated in 2004, is a two-dimensional carbon material with a tensile strength of 130 GPa (200 times steel), an elastic modulus of approximately 1 TPa, light transmission of around 98%, electrical conductivity above copper and thermal conductivity of about 5 kW/m·K. In plastics it has demonstrated gas barrier, thermal stability, processability, conductivity and UV resistance benefits, Cremonezzi noted; the presentation focused on mechanical reinforcement, because that improvement enables reduction of plastic mass.

Poly-G 07 was the first-generation product for flexible packaging films, extensively tested and validated; a newer incorporation technology platform now supports application-specific grades. The Poly-G 1000 line covers polyethylene (PE): Poly-G 1001 for heavy-duty bags, 1002 for PE injection molding, 1101 for flexible films, 1102 for stretch films and 1201 for monofilament. The Poly-G 2000 line targets polypropylene (PP): Poly-G 2101 for FIBCs and fibers, 2102 for macrofibers and 2103 for PP injection molding. A Poly-G 3000 line for polyamide is coming, with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and other polymers to follow based on customer demand.

Colorfix runs a staged co-development process with customers: scope definition, joint test planning, assisted production with engineers on site for first prototype runs, pilot validation, market positioning and continuous improvement. On market claims, Cremonezzi was specific. "Years ago, many companies said their products had graphene, and it was a complete mess, because they didn't follow any rules to make this communication," he said; Colorfix helps customers keep graphene claims in compliance with what is known about the material.

Downgauging results across film formats

In baling films, widely used as secondary packaging for the storage and transport of products such as rice, pasta and toilet paper, a Poly-G film at 40 micrometers matched or exceeded a 50-micrometer conventional film, with 11% higher ultimate tensile strength, 16% higher elastic modulus and 11% higher stress at break against 15% lower elongation at break; thickness reductions reach up to 30% depending on the case.

In automatic stretch film, a 1% addition of Poly-G 07 in selected layers cut thickness 20%, from 21 to 17 micrometers, while raising stretching from 250% to 350%. The combined effect cut pallet wrapping from 110 grams to 76 grams of film per pallet, which Colorfix reports as 40% less plastic. Steelmaker Gerdau, an early adopter, is applying graphene-enhanced stretch film on wire rod reels, cutting the film from 60 to 40 micrometers and 45 to 30 g/m², package mass from 940 to 500 grams per unit, plastic use by 46% and operating cost by 18%. In manually applied stretch films, a 24% thickness reduction from 15 to 11.4 micrometers still raised maximum elongation from 150% to 210%, a 40% higher stretch ratio, with customers commercializing in Brazil, in Mexico to support the U.S. market and in China for Asian markets.

In shrink films, the same 1% addition in selected layers achieved a 20% thickness reduction from 50 to 40 micrometers and 24% less plastic per package, cutting a 12-bottle 510-milliliter water pack from 15.6 to 11.9 grams of film while maintaining tensile, shrink, sealing and optical properties. Cremonezzi also showed HDPE general bags developed by a customer in China for the Japanese market: a 15-micrometer film reduced to 11 micrometers with improved mechanical performance, sold commercially as 120-liter bags at 11 micrometers and 180-liter bags at 13 micrometers, with slow-motion video showing the thinner film taking longer to break. Across films from roughly 10 to 100 micrometers, Poly-G performance has been validated in real industrial environments, he said.

Beyond downgauging, Cremonezzi identified two further opportunities. The first is raising recycled content: a garbage bag producer in Malaysia needed 30% post-consumer recycled (PCR) content in its formulation to comply with European regulations, and a 2% addition of Poly-G 07 made the reformulation work, with the finished bag measuring 46% higher tensile strain in the machine direction and 60% higher tear resistance in the transverse direction than the control bag. The second is surface modification: in the cosmetics industry, around 5 kilograms of product can be lost in a 1,000-liter container through retention on the packaging walls, and a bag-in-box liner with 3% Poly-G 07 in the inner layer cut stored product loss by 60%, dropping the static coefficient of friction from 0.39 to 0.20. Because Poly-G is used only in the product-contact layer, the effective graphene loading is very low.

The economics of thinner film

Cremonezzi closed with a cost simulation based on average international pricing, assuming resin represents approximately 70% of production cost. A 0.5% Poly-G addition delivering a 25% resin reduction cut total cost from $1.83 to $1.61 per kilogram, a 12% formulation cost reduction, or 22 cents per kilogram.

A converter selling the film at $2.03 per kilogram then has two options, he explained: reduce the price to $1.79 as a competitive advantage, or hold the price and lift the margin from $0.20 to $0.43 per kilogram, from 10% to roughly 21%, a 138% margin increase. The brand owner benefits either way. A film yielding a hypothetical 100 meters per kilogram at standard thickness delivers 133 meters per kilogram at 25% less thickness, a 33% increase in packaging output per kilogram; even at a price of $2.71 per kilogram, the brand owner comes out ahead, Cremonezzi calculated. "This is really a win-win structure for the converter, for the brand owner and, of course, for the environment," he said.

Recyclability, safety and food contact

Audience questions opened with recyclability. Colorfix began a broad study with a university partner last year, Cremonezzi said, with preliminary results indicating that graphene helps plastic withstand more recycling cycles without losing mechanical properties, while the very low graphene content does not complicate sorting. Barkan added that the ACC has case studies outside the Colorfix use where graphene has been added to plastics specifically to upgrade recyclate. "Plastic materials that normally could not be recycled any further have had graphene added to them to improve the mechanicals and take them out of the waste stream," he said. Barkan also clarified that Poly-G is a masterbatch whose graphene concentration is diluted in the final polyethylene mix; Cremonezzi confirmed that the final graphene loading in the film is in no case more than 0.1%.

On health and safety, Cremonezzi noted that he is not a specialist in health and safety issues of graphene, and said the handling question largely does not reach the customer. "All the complex part of the graphene manipulation is done inside Colorfix. Our customer will only manipulate the masterbatch, and the graphene is already encapsulated in the plastic," he said. Barkan stated the ACC position. "We recommend end users, brand owners and companies putting it into the end product, to not handle the dry powder in a nano form, but to handle the masterbatch where it is encapsulated. Then you don't have the exposure," he said. "The risk profile for graphene happens when it's in the dry powdered nano form, as an inhalation risk." The ACC has run collaborative studies with the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), he noted; standard practices and protective equipment exist for dry nanopowders, and once encapsulated in plastic the graphene would be exceptionally difficult, if not impossible, to extract.

On food contact, Peressinotto confirmed that graphene has not yet been approved for food contact applications. "In Brazil, we have the ANVISA regulation, similar to the FDA in the U.S.," she said. "A lot of companies in Brazil and around the world are working to provide studies to the regulatory agencies, but not yet." Barkan noted that the ACC works with companies on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approvals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), disclosed that an active food contact application for graphene in a different host material is already underway, and invited interested brand owners to contact the ACC for support with testing and regulatory engagement. On pricing, Cremonezzi said cost depends on region and invited private inquiries; Barkan added that independent ACC modeling of this type of application shows cost savings even with graphene added, because of the reduction in virgin material.

Sourcing and dispersion

Asked whether Colorfix produces its own graphene, Cremonezzi said the company deliberately sources from multiple producers. "We take the best graphene for each application and make the compatibilization and the incorporation in products that are plug and play for industry," he said. Barkan noted the scale of that selection problem: the ACC has cataloged more than 1,000 different forms of commercial graphene available on the market.

Dispersion, Cremonezzi said, is the decisive variable. "The dispersion is really the predominant factor of success in the application of graphene," he said. Asked how dispersion quality is verified, he was direct about the limits of direct measurement, especially at the costumer’s end: "We cannot see it in a number, but the most important indicator is the performance. If we can improve the performance, probably the dispersion was good." Each Poly-G grade is formulated with dispersion characteristics specific to its application. Colorfix employs a quality control process for graphene as a raw material; each batch is characterized and validated before entering the masterbatch production process. In addition to the graphene checks, the production process for the Poly-G line also features its own quality control protocol to ensure consistent performance across all batches for customers.

On optics, Cremonezzi said films with Poly-G generally lose no transparency, though the tone shifts slightly gray depending on film thickness and graphene loading. An audience question about graphene-infused thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) for lightweight bicycle inner tubes drew a response from Dr. Chirag Rawani, chief science officer at the ACC, based in Manchester, U.K. "For TPU, I would say that it is one of the more commonly used thermoplastics for graphene compounding," Rawani said. "The nuances are exactly the same as any other thermoplastic; the recycling, the strength performance, all of that would be very parallel to other thermoplastics." Barkan offered the ACC as a neutral party to connect members on the application.

Closing the session, Barkan summarized four observations: the technology improves packaging performance; it reduces the virgin material required; the economics favor both converter and brand owner; and the results are commercial, with products in the market across stretch films, flexible polyethylene films and rigid plastics over multiple years. "It's not theoretical. It's not a test case. It's real world," he said.

Fardo closed with an invitation. "Please come and join us on this path, so we can improve material efficiency and produce a legacy for the next generations," he said.