Grafoid Inc. has announced the development of its GPURE Graphene Polymer nano-porous membrane intended for next generation Li-Ion battery applications.
The GPURE graphene polymer membrane (GPM) technology is the seventh graphene-based companion to the company’s expanding GPURE Platform of new, high performing, ultra-thin materials for diverse industrial applications. Grafoid’s research is supported through the Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) of the National Research Council of Canada, and, on February 20, 2015, Grafoid received an $8.1 million investment from the SD Tech Fund™ of Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) to develop a technology that will automate Mesograf™ graphene production and end-product development.
Directa Plus has for the first time worked together with Eurojersey, an Italian of high quality warp-knit technical fabrics under its Sensitive Fabrics brand, to produce a range of fabrics containing the company’s graphene-based products. Unveiled by Eurojersey at ISPO Munich, the companies are now conducting joint R&D to further develop the prototype textiles into product samples that will be marketed to the customers of Directa Plus and Eurojersey.
HydraRedox Iberia S.L. and Gnanomat S.L. have signed a collaboration agreement to develop, optimize and manufacture tailor-made advanced materials that will be utilized in Hydra Redox Iberia’s vanadium redox batteries. Clean TeQ Holdings Limited has been awarded a grant under the second round of the Cooperative Research Centre’s Project (CRC-P) program. Government funding of $632,285 has been approved for the project which is scheduled to commence in March 2017. The funding is provided by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science to develop energy efficient wastewater treatment technology using graphene oxide technology. The technology development will be undertaken in association with Ionic Industries Ltd. and Monash University.
A Beijing-based company has developed the world’s first graphene lithium-ion AA rechargeable batteries in the city and said its ready to be mass produced and officially hit the market.
Compared with ordinary AA dry batteries and rechargeable batteries, Carbon Century Technology Co.’s graphene batteries can be used 30,000 times under temperatures between -45 degrees Celsius and 60 degrees Celsius, Chinanews.com cited the company as saying two days ago.
Working temperatures for ordinary, nickel-metal hydride batteries are between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius and normal lithium batteries are best used between -10 and 40 degrees Celsius.
Carbon Century’s new batteries use graphene for the framework of electrode materials to increase their strength, which enhances the overall life of lithium batteries and improves micro-conductivity and batter safety, said Chairman Yan Liqun.
Italy-based graphene producer Directa Plus plc, a producer and supplier of graphene-based products for use in consumer and industrial markets, has announced that Colmar, the high-end sportswear company, has launched a new collection of ski jackets containing the Company’s graphene-based products.
DARPA has awarded a $1.3 million grant to a team led by UCF researcher Debashis Chanda to fund the development of a next-generation infrared detector based on graphene that could be used in fields as varied as night vision, meteorology, and space exploration.
CSIRO scientists have developed a novel “GraphAir” technology which eliminates the need for such a highly-controlled environment. The technology grows graphene film in ambient air with a natural precursor, making its production faster and simpler.
“This ambient-air process for graphene fabrication is fast, simple, safe, potentially scalable, and integration-friendly,” CSIRO scientist Dr Zhao Jun Han, co-author of the paper published in Nature Communications said.
“Our unique technology is expected to reduce the cost of graphene production and improve the uptake in new applications.”
GraphAir transforms soybean oil – a renewable, natural material – into graphene films in a single step. “Our GraphAir technology results in good and transformable graphene properties, comparable to graphene made by conventional methods,” CSIRO scientist and co-author of the study Dr Dong Han Seo said.
On February 21, Xiangyang signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Hubei Institute of Aerospace Chemical Technology. Under the agreement, the two companies will jointly build China Aerospace Graphene Industry Base in Central China. Xiangyang city will make full use of Hubei aerospace chemical technology institute’s technical advantages in graphene and mainly build t hepilot production line of grapheme in the first phase to create industrialization platform of civil military integration.
Researchers from the Lodz University of Technology have designed a transparent, flexible cryogenic temperature sensor with graphene structures as sensing elements. Such sensors could be useful in medical diagnostics, space exploration and aviation, processing and storage of food and scientific research.
Researchers from Flinders University have teamed up with First Graphite to produce high quality graphene for industrial use.
The collaboration involves using a Vortex Fluidic Device (VFD) to produce the graphene. Graphene is used in a range of modern technology such as lithium-ion batteries, sensors and transparent-conducting electrodes for flexible solar cells.
The VFD will be used to manufacture the graphene sheets. It is a suitcase-sized piece of equipment that applies very high sheer forces to liquids fed into the system through spinning a tube at high velocity. First Graphite plans to use the technique to scale up the process to a commercial level to export the graphene to high value markets.
Researchers from an EU-funded project known as Gladiator have succeeded in manufacturing organic light-emitting diode electrodes from graphene for the first time. Project partners Frannhofer FEP, Graphenea and Aixtron, placed a wafer of high-purity copper into a stainless steel vacuum chamber and heated it to 800°C before exposing it to a mixture of methane and hydrogen. The methane dissolves in the copper and forms carbon atoms, which spread across the surface of the plate, organising themselves into a layer of graphene. This takes only a few minutes, according to the team.
US company Nanomedical Diagnostics has collaborated with MEMS foundry Rogue Valley Microdevices to deliver what is said to be the first mass produced graphene based biosensor.
Called the AGILE R100, the benchtop device is designed to provide biophysical data to pharmaceutical and biotherapeutics companies seeking more informed decisions earlier in the drug discovery process.
“Rogue Valley Microdevices has been a true partner in developing a viable large-scale fabrication process for our AGILE biosensor chips,” said Nanomedical Diagnostics’ CEO Ross Bundy. “The ability to manufacture graphene biosensors at scale will enable us to create significant cost reductions for many life science and healthcare applications, as well as introduce game-changing capabilities that have never been seen before.”
Chinese startup WPG recently debuted a 5,000mAh quick charging power bank made with graphene. The company launched a crowdfunding campaign for what it calls the WPG Graphene Lightning Mobile Power Bank on JD.com.
WPG is claiming that the 5,000mAh variant of its product can be fully charged in exactly 10 minutes. The WPG Graphene Lightning Mobile Power Bank will also be available in a larger, 10,000mAh variant with quick charging support. Both models have a maximum power output of 18W and won’t be prone to overheating thanks to the fact they’re made out of graphene.
Directa Plus graphene-based materials have been selected by Luxottica Group, a company that designs, manufactures and sells eyewear, to enhance a new range of Ray-Ban glasses.
Rutgers University has licensed a technology that allows for the mass production of high-quality graphene at a reduced cost to Everpower International Holdings. Invented by a team led by Manish Chhowalla, professor of materials science and engineering in the School of Engineering at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, the method uses microwaves to produce high-quality graphene from graphene oxide, and has the potential to generate large quantities of it at low cost.
Zenyatta Ventures Ltd. has reported that a team of scientists under the direction of Dr. Aicheng Chen at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, has made significant advancements related to sensing application development with the first graphene oxide (GO) invention produced from the Company’s high-purity Albany graphite. Dr. Chen and his team have developed a novel one-pot synthesis of fluorine functionalized graphene oxide (F-GO) which can be used in many energy, environmental and electrochemical sensing applications. The produced F-GO has been tested for the simultaneous detection of various toxic metal ions (e.g. mercury, lead, cadmium and copper) and a substantial improvement in the electrochemical sensing performance was achieved in comparison with GO.
Carbon Sciences Inc. has announced that the Company has entered into a new Sponsored Research Agreement with the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). The new agreement will allow UCSB to continue the research and development of a potentially ultrafast optical modulator based on graphene. An optical modulator is a critical fiber optic component for the encoding and transmission of digital data. The new 6-month research program commences April 1, 2017 will conclude on September 30, 2017. This will allow the research team to demonstrate optical index changes in graphene using external voltages and to fabricate certain optical waveguides.
Graphene NanoChem has received a firm commitment for PlatSurF, its oilfield recovery additive, from a Middle Eastern oil and gas company to use on oil wells in Turkmenistan. It is the first contract for the product in the country with the order worth US$119,000 just for one trial well. Graphene said the unnamed customer has 110 wells in Turkmenistan. If the trial is successful, negotiations will start for these oil wells to be treated over the next 12-24 months.
