Researchers from Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) managed to embed a LED inside a regular soft contact lens, using transparent and conductive electrodes made from graphene and silver nanowires. This is the first time an electronic device was embedded inside a contact lens using flexible and transparent materials.

The researchers final goal is to develop wearable computer displays inside contact lenses. Basically it will be like a Google Glass HMD, but without any external display components. Obviously that goal is still far in the future: currently they manged to embed just one LED and not a full display.

Earlier in 2013, Lomiko Metals and Graphene Labs signed a strategic alliance agreement, and the companies has been collaborating since. Now Lomiko Metals announced it is establishing an R&D unit to oversee and coordinate the research activities on conversion of graphite into graphene.

Lomiko Metals contracted Graphene Labs' founders Dr. Elena Polyakova and Dr. Daniel Stolyarov to create the new department.

Researchers from Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Case Western Reserve University and University of North Texas developed a new low-cost metal-free fuel cell catalyst that is based on edge-halogenated graphene nanoplatelets (XGnPs). They say that this new catalyst is a potential replacement for Platinum based ones currently used in fuel cells.

The researchers created the edge-selectively halogenated graphene nanoplatelets by ball-milling graphite flake with chlorine, bromine, or iodine. Experiments have shown that those XGnPs have great oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activities with higher tolerance to methanol crossover/CO poisoning effects and longer-term stability (this compared to the original graphite and commercial Pt/C electrocatalysts).

National Graphite Corporation (NGC) entered into an agreement with American Graphene to jointly explore graphene business opportunities. NGC will supply high grade graphite samples from its Chedic Graphite mine in Nevada to American Graphene (based in Phoenix Arizona).

American Graphene converted the graphite to graphene using a sonication process. We don't have more details, but sonication means applying sound (usually ultrasound) to agitate particles - which perhaps can be used to reduce graphite to graphene.

Researchers from Columbia demonstrated that a graphene sheet that is stitched together from many small crystalline grains is almost as strong as perfect graphene (this depends on the processing method, though). This solves the question whether graphene defects harm its mechanical strength (some theoretical simulations predict that grain boundaries are strong while other indicated they weaken the graphene sheet).

Commonly used methods for post-processing CVD-grown graphene may indeed weaken the grain boundaries and create a low-strength graphene. But the researchers developed a new transfer process (using a different etchant) that prevents any damage to the graphene.