Researchers from Monash University (Australia) have managed to grow 3D graphene "towers" that make graphene more elastic. The new 3D material supports 50,000 times its own weight, springs back into shape after being compressed by up to 80% and has a very low density. The material still retains graphene's conductivity.

To develop the new material, the researchers used ice crystal as templates to grow the graphene towers from graphene oxide flakes. The technique was adapted from freeze casting which involves growing layers of soluble graphene oxide between forming ice crystals. By partially stripping the oxygen coating before freeze casting, they could enhance the bonding between adjacent flakes in the network, producing much stronger materials then before. The individual graphene sheets are neatly aligned, forming an ordered network of hexagonal pores.

Researchers from the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan are studying graphene flakes, and creating conductive materials. Producing these flakes is much more simple than fabricating actual graphene sheets (they are doing it by chemically treating graphite). The researchers have been using these flakes to make regular paper conductive (simply by painting a solution with graphene flakes on it).

One of the first application the researchers are working on is strain sensors that can replace current sensors in oil and gas pipe lines, bridges, engines and airplanes to check the conditions of these items. They believe this could be one of the first real-world graphene applications.

The transparency of graphene coating to wetting is not as absolute as thought before. New research from MIT shows that for materials with intermediate wettability, graphene does preserve the properties of the underlying material. But for more extreme cases — superhydrophobic surfaces, which intensely repel water, or superhydrophilic ones, which cause water to spread out — an added layer of graphene does significantly change the way coated materials behave.

These extreme cases are of greatest interest. For example, coating a superhydrophobic material with graphene was seen as a possible way of making electronic circuits that would be protected from short-circuiting and corrosion in water.

China Carbon Graphite Group's CEO Donghai Yu revealed last week that CCG has been working on a graphene technology research program with the top Chinese institute in that field (he wouldnt' name the institute). CCG hopes to become the leader of this industry in China and they are confident that further progress will be achieved in 2013. Hopefully we'll hear more about this program then.

China Carbon Graphite Group is a Chinese company based in Chengguan Town (Xinghe) that manufactures and sells graphite-based products in China. CCG's products include graphite electrodes, fine grain graphite blocks and high purity graphite.

Researchers from Rice University managed to develop a new hybrid material that combines carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with graphene. The CNTs rise like towers from the graphene - up to 120 microns in height. This material has a massive surface (over 2,000 square meters per gram of material), which will be great for energy storage supercapacitors and other applications. Just to compare, a house on an average plot with the same aspect ratio would rise into space.

The nanotubes do not simply "sit" on the graphene - they are part of it as they share the atoms (the bonds between them are covalent). To develop this material, the researchers grew graphene on metal (copper) and then the CNTs were grown on the graphene. The electrical contact between the nanotubes and the metal electrode is ohmic. That means electrons see no difference, because it's all one seamless material.