In this InvestorIntel interview, Tracy Weslosky has Zentek Ltd.‘s (NASDAQ: ZTEK | TSXV: ZEN) CEO and Director Greg Fenton discuss Zentek’s recent news release on the ZenGUARD™ technology patent being granted. As an antimicrobial coating used on personal protective equipment (PPE) and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) applications, Greg explains how they took ZenGUARD™ from a concept in the lab to an Intellectual Property that can be commercialized.

Greg goes on to provide an update on the successful completion of Phase 2 HVAC filter testing of the ZenGUARD™ coating by the National Research Council of Canada. As an economical solution to significantly reduce airborne pathogens and improve indoor air quality, Greg discusses how ZenGUARD™ coating can be applied to HVAC filters without any modification to existing HVAC systems.

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About Zentek Ltd.

Zentek is an IP development and commercialization company focused on the research, development and commercialization of novel products using graphene and nanomaterials for use in the healthcare industry and beyond.

Zentek’s patented ZenGUARD™ coating is shown to have 99% antimicrobial activity, including against COVID-19, for use in PPE and potentially HVAC systems and other industries. Zentek’s ZenGUARD™ production facility is located in Guelph, Ontario.

To know more about Zentek Ltd., click here

Disclaimer: Zentek Ltd. is an advertorial member of InvestorIntel Corp.

This interview, which was produced by InvestorIntel Corp., (IIC), does not contain, nor does it purport to contain, a summary of all the material information concerning the “Company” being interviewed. IIC offers no representations or warranties that any of the information contained in this interview is accurate or complete.

This presentation may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and assumptions of the management of the Company as of the date made. They are inherently susceptible to uncertainty and other factors that could cause actual events/results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Additional risks and uncertainties, including those that the Company does not know about now or that it currently deems immaterial, may also adversely affect the Company’s business or any investment therein.

Any projections given are principally intended for use as objectives and are not intended, and should not be taken, as assurances that the projected results will be obtained by the Company. The assumptions used may not prove to be accurate and a potential decline in the Company’s financial condition or results of operations may negatively impact the value of its securities. Prospective investors are urged to review the Company’s profile on Sedar.com and to carry out independent investigations in order to determine their interest in investing in the Company.

If you have any questions surrounding the content of this interview, please contact us at +1 416 792 8228 and/or email us direct at [email protected].

In this InvestorIntel interview, host Tracy Weslosky talks to Zentek Ltd.‘s (NASDAQ: ZTEK | TSXV: ZEN) CEO and Director Greg Fenton about its new mask manufacturing and packaging agreement and interest generated from a successful promotional tour in the USA.

In the interview, which can also be viewed in full on the InvestorIntel YouTube channel (click here to access InvestorChannel.com), Greg discusses how Zentek has entered into an agreement with long-established Viva Healthcare Packaging (Canada) Ltd. to manufacture and sell surgical masks enhanced with Zentek’s proprietary ZenGUARD antimicrobial coating. At the height of the pandemic Viva was producing over 20 million masks per month. “They’re big and well established with an existing distribution network,” Greg tells Tracy, “so it was absolutely a perfect partnership for us.”

Greg also talks about his recent visit to Washington, D.C., that included 14 meetings with members of the U.S. Congress, to discuss indoor air quality and Zentek’s ZenGUARD-coated HVAC filters. “We developed a lot of momentum there,” he says. He also talks about ongoing testing of their HVAC filters in real world environments, like classrooms. “The simplicity and elegance of our solution is it’s a passive solution that can be added to any existing system.”

Finally, Greg also talks about Zentek’s finances. “We did a significant capital raise at the beginning of this year and our treasury’s in an excellent position,” he tells Tracy, “but we’re being very judicious in our spending.”

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Don’t miss other InvestorIntel interviews. Subscribe to the InvestorIntel YouTube channel by clicking here.

About Zentek Ltd.

Zentek is an IP development and commercialization company focused on the research, development and commercialization of novel products using graphene and nanomaterials for use in the healthcare industry and beyond. Zentek’s proprietary ZenGUARD™ coating is patent-pending and shown to have 99% antimicrobial activity, including against COVID-19, for use in PPE and potentially HVAC systems and other industries. Zentek’s ZenGUARD™ production facility is located in Guelph, Ontario.

To know more about Zentek Ltd., click here

Disclaimer: Zentek Ltd. is an advertorial member of InvestorIntel Corp.

This interview, which was produced by InvestorIntel Corp., (IIC), does not contain, nor does it purport to contain, a summary of all the material information concerning the “Company” being interviewed. IIC offers no representations or warranties that any of the information contained in this interview is accurate or complete.

This presentation may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and assumptions of the management of the Company as of the date made. They are inherently susceptible to uncertainty and other factors that could cause actual events/results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Additional risks and uncertainties, including those that the Company does not know about now or that it currently deems immaterial, may also adversely affect the Company’s business or any investment therein.

Any projections given are principally intended for use as objectives and are not intended, and should not be taken, as assurances that the projected results will be obtained by the Company. The assumptions used may not prove to be accurate and a potential decline in the Company’s financial condition or results of operations may negatively impact the value of its securities. Prospective investors are urged to review the Company’s profile on Sedar.com and to carry out independent investigations in order to determine their interest in investing in the Company.

If you have any questions surrounding the content of this interview, please contact us at +1 416 792 8228 and/or email us direct at [email protected].

NEO Battery Materials’ Progressing on the Development and Commercialization of Longer Lasting Higher Energy Density Lithium Ion Battery Components

Investors looking for a cutting edge technology company in the electric vehicle (EV) battery components sector need look no further than NEO Battery Materials Ltd. (TSXV: NBM | OTCQB: NBMFF). NEO is a North American battery materials company with a current focus on developing silicon anode (the negative electrode in a battery) materials through its “ion-and electronic-conductive polymer nanocoating technology.” Or, in simpler language, a ‘silicon material’ for batteries, used to make the anode last longer in service (make it capable of being charged and recharged more times without losing integrity or efficiency)  and be capable of holding more energy, thus making the battery more durable and efficient

NEO states: “NEO has a focus on producing silicon anode materials through its proprietary single-step nanocoating process, which provides improvements in capacity and efficiency over that of lithium-ion batteries using graphite in their anode materials.”

NEO’s stock price has been on a tear in 2021; however, the recent pullback potentially gives a better entry point for investors.

NEO Battery Materials (TSXV: NBM) 1 year stock price chart

Source: Yahoo Finance

Another thing that investors love is active management that can rapidly progress a company and produce lots of good news. We’ll take a look at the news flow summary below, just for November 2021.

• Nov. 23, 2021 – NEO Battery Materials appoints lithium-ion battery electrode binder and polymer technology expert, Dr. Byeong-Su Kim, to Scientific Advisory Board. The news states: “Utilizing robust binder technologies with characteristics such as a high elastic modulus can help contain and control the volume expansion of silicon, resulting in lower probabilities of particle pulverization and a cracking anode.”
• Nov. 18, 2021 – NEO Battery Materials receives approval for a core patent from the Korean Intellectual Property Office.
• Nov. 16, 2021 – NEO Battery Materials announces research consortium LOI with both the University of Toronto and with an undisclosed global OEM for R&D and scale-up of EV Battery Materials. The preliminary project will involve the full electrode fabrication of silicon-carbon composite anodes through NEO’s silicon particle nanocoating process…..With the active material (silicon and/or graphite), binders and conductive additives as core components….
• Nov. 10, 2021 – NEO Battery Materials appoints Dr. Dongmok Whang, expert in low-dimensional nanomaterials and graphene, to Scientific Advisory Board. His research expertise lies in the field of fabrication and manufacturing of low-dimensional nanomaterials, especially graphene, semiconductor nanowires, and porous nanostructures for applications in electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells, and various energy storage solutions.
• Nov. 4, 2021 – NEO Battery Materials accomplishes anode production capacity upscaling Project over the past three months. The news states: “From the initial production rate of several grams per hour for manufacturing silicon anode materials at the lab-scale, NEO’s engineering team has accomplished to expand the rate to a level of several kilograms per hour. This is a result of improving productivity by more than 1,000-fold, and the success of the Project at this level has given stronger validation for the 120-ton semi-commercial plant that is scheduled to be commissioned by the end of next year.” President & CEO Spencer Huh, added: “As NEO understands the need to fast-track into mass production, we are pleased to announce the accomplishment of the Upscaling Project. The Company is at the forefront of developing unique Si anode lines through the low-cost manufacturing process, and we are customizing solutions for various downstream users to optimize the products for high-power electric vehicle lithium-ion battery applications.”

The above 5 news items, when added together’ show the rapid pace and progress NEO is achieving. Looking back on the previous two months there were even more great achievements by NEO. The standout news came on October 26 when NEO announced: “Completion of semi-commercial plant conceptual design and initiates engineering EPC stage for construction.” The facility will be in South Korea. President & CEO, Spencer Huh, stated: “NEO is now another step towards commercializing our silicon anode materials for EV lithium-ion batteries and is actively expediting our timelines and milestones.”

As shown below the problem with silicon in anodes can be that as the silicon absorbs the electrons it expands then cracks the anode, leading to a low cycle life (low longevity). NEO has managed to improve this by using its cost-effective and efficient one-pot, single-step, nanocoating process.

NEO Battery Materials state that their silicon anode materials are already achieving much higher cycles than competitors

Source: NEO Battery Materials company website

Closing remarks

A lot of the details surrounding NEO Battery Materials’ achievements are not very well understood by investors. This is only natural as most investors are not battery material scientists.

The key to understanding NEO’s work is that its silicon anodes or composite silicon graphite anodes can significantly improve battery capacity, which relates to greater energy density, and hence longer range for the same size battery. What EV manufacturers and customers all want is better performing batteries that result in longer driving range for a given size battery. Silicon anodes today present many challenges, especially cracking leading to poor cycle life. NEO is making great strides in solving this problem by producing silicon anode materials with a much longer cycle life.

If NEO can succeed in meeting commercial standards it will have Tesla and other EV and battery/anode OEMs knocking on its door. For now it appears there is plenty of promise, especially given the longer cycling results (1,000 cycles) and recent production scaling progress, as well as the interest from an OEM in joining NEO’s research consortium.

NEO Battery Materials trades on a market cap of C$39 million. It’s one to watch.

It seems like it was only last week that I was writing about nanomaterials and how they were going to save the world by making everything better. Oh wait, it was just last week. I guess the difference here is that this company has an actual resource (targeting silica in quartzites) that would supply their proprietary nanocoating technology. Nope, that’s almost the same as well. So to quote baseball’s philosopher, Yogi Berra, it’s déjà vu all over again. Today is another story about nanomaterials that look like they have the potential to improve the technology required to lower our carbon footprint and make the air we breathe a little cleaner.

The company being discussed this time around is NEO Battery Materials Ltd. (TSXV: NBM | OTC: NBMFF). A six-month chart of this stock will tell you that there is plenty of buzz around what is happening, given it has traded in a range of $0.14/share to as high as $1.31, closing yesterday at $0.89. Most of this activity is being driven by the steady stream of exciting news that comes out on an almost weekly basis. Two of the biggest surges in the stock price came first in early June when the Company made the remarkable announcement that its nanocoated silicon anode allows for a safe full charge on small battery cells within 5 minutes leading to a two-day rally of 62%. Then this past Friday NEO reported the first prototype of silicon anode active materials has been successfully produced, and samples have been sent to partners for full cell evaluation and electrochemical characterization. The latest news causing the stock to surge 30% on the day with further follow through on Monday adding another 14% to the share price.

These are some pretty stunning moves so let’s look a little closer at what this all means in the grand scheme of things and why the stock may be responding like it is to this news. The first news seems pretty obvious to me, recharging a battery in 5 minutes is impressive no matter how you look at it. If we could all recharge our smartphone, wearable device, tablet, laptop, cordless yard equipment, etc. in 5 minutes, life would be a whole lot more convenient. But convenience isn’t going to save the earth. Where this becomes a game changer is if they can evolve this technology for use in the Li-Ion batteries used in EVs. Imagine the change in adoption of EVs over internal combustion engines if you can recharge your battery in almost the same amount of time it takes to fill a vehicle with gas. It almost wouldn’t matter what the range of the battery is as long as there was adequate charging capability. Going to Starbucks for a coffee? Plugged in the car before I went in and it was charged when I came out. Stopping by the grocery store on the way home from work to pick up something for dinner? No problem, also charged the car while I was in the store.

Perhaps I’m getting a little bit utopian but it’s hard to argue that an EV that could charge in 5 minutes wouldn’t be revolutionary. This leads us to the latest news from the Company, the first working set of NEO’s proprietary silicon anode materials has been manufactured through their unique process. This prototype will be utilized by NEO’s third-party partners for evaluating the performance and efficacy of NEO’s silicon anodes in each respective party’s cell system and environment. The Company expects this development to act as a catalyst to accelerate the commercialization of its silicon anode active materials. Another critical piece of information in the latest press release was the signing of two new Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) with global top-tier battery material producers in China and South Korea for NEO’s innovations with silicon. They are getting the word out and in front of the right people to make something happen.

The Company raised $2 million in early May and had a cash balance of $872,171 as of their May 31^st financials. NEO has likely raised another $1.4 million from the exercise of in-the-money ($0.30 strike) warrants that were set to expire on August 21^st. There are still 17 million warrants outstanding but with an expiry date of May 2024, who knows if/when those might get exercised. In the meantime, there should be enough cash to continue operations for a couple of more months at which point in time we will see what’s next for NEO Battery Materials. They may have to go back to the market to raise some capital, or perhaps a JV with one of their NDA partners will provide some financial support. Regardless, there are some exciting things happening that will keep investors on the edge of their seats for the foreseeable future.

Scientists have not unanimously settled on a precise definition of nanomaterials, but agree that they are partially characterized by their tiny size, measured in nanometers. A nanometer is one millionth of a millimeter – approximately 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. For a while, nanomaterials were going to save the world by making everything faster, stronger and maybe even higher. But Olympic motto aside, there was a lot of hype about nanomaterials and a decade(s) later not much to show for all that optimism. Or maybe there is if you look in the right places.

Nano-sized particles exist in nature and can be created from a variety of products, such as carbon or minerals like silver, but nanomaterials by definition must have at least one dimension that is less than approximately 100 nanometers. One such company that is making progress in the world of nanomaterials is ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd. (TSXV: ZEN), despite starting life as a mining company. In fact, the Company still maintains its unique Albany Graphite Project, which provides the company with a potential long-term competitive advantage in the graphene market. The unique genesis of the Albany deposit, resulting in very fine-grained graphite crystallites, yields an ideal graphite precursor material for conversion to high-value graphene, graphene oxide and graphene quantum dots that can be used in a wide variety of applications.

However, don’t kid yourself into thinking this is a mining story. It is very much a technology story that has evolved out of the special characteristics of the graphite available at the Albany deposit. ZEN has a broad reach as far as solutions being derived from nanomaterials. Front and center is the ZENGuard™ antimicrobial coating which can be utilized on PPE, filtration media (HVAC filters) and other materials such as paper, cardboard etc. as a preventative ‘catch-and-kill’ mechanism. The Company has developed a non-toxic, antimicrobial coating that is 99+% effective against numerous pathogens, including COVID-19, with initial testing showing a further 98% effectiveness after 108 days. ZENGuard™ on masks, gloves and other PPE to protect front-line workers, the public and reduce the spread of pathogens (including and beyond COVID-19) has an estimated global market of US$52 billion. While the potential market for ZENGuard™ on air filters to kill airborne pathogens in homes, schools, hospitals and commercial and industrial spaces is estimated at US$66 billion. Not a bad starting point.

As a spin-out from the focus on everything COVID-19, ZEN recently announced exclusive worldwide rights to commercialize rapid, saliva-based COVID-19 antigen testing technology in partnership with McMaster University. This technology is exceptionally accurate (similar to current PCR tests), saliva-based, affordable, scalable and provides results in under 10 minutes. It appears we aren’t going to rid ourselves of this pesky virus anytime soon. So perhaps the best solution to getting on with some semblance of normal is accurate, rapid testing.

Being an optimist and looking beyond COVID-19 and hopefully no other mutation or pathogens running amok in public, we find that ZEN has developed a stable diesel fuel additive, which increased the performance of diesel fuel by up to 10% in initial testing. Greg Fenton, ZEN CEO commented: “With global market estimates for diesel fuel alone near $1 trillion, the size of the challenge to reduce emissions from this level of demand is massive, but so is the opportunity for novel solutions to help us be more efficient in our usage.” Regardless of whether you want zero emissions tomorrow, as long as everyone continues to order stuff off Amazon and you want fresh fruit in your grocery store, diesel demand is going to be with us for a while. So rather than be an environmental zealot, why not embrace solutions that help reduce emissions in the interim until we can finally achieve our ultimate goal. Which is a good segue into research ZEN is doing into lower-cost, reduced weight, higher performance and capacity energy storage applications by developing graphene-wrapped silicon anodes for Li-ion batteries.

Then there’s the classic stereotype of nanomaterials making everything better. ZEN has its fingers in corrosion protective coating for reduced corrosion and enhanced longevity for steel. Polymers that enhance strength, longevity, and conductivity that can be used as versatile replacements for metallic electromagnetic shields. There’s also enhanced strength and electrical conductivity aluminum for the automotive industry and enhanced strength and longevity cement based composites for the construction industry. I’m probably missing something but you get the picture.

On a final note, on June 16^th ZEN and Trebor Rx Corp. provided an update on the Health Canada review process for the ZENGuard^TM-enhanced, ASTM level 3 surgical mask. Clearly, the sooner they can get approvals and get mask production underway, the sooner they can start to realize the revenue from the Trebor agreement signed in November 2020 or a minimum of 100 million masks/filters. As a prospective investor, this is the news I’m eagerly awaiting.