Back in June 2013, Haydale (owned by ICL from May 2011) announced that it developed metal-free graphene-based inks. Haydale, established in 2003 with strong links with Swansea University, is developing and marketing carbon materials under the HDPlas brand. The company currently focuses on graphene, CNTs and zinc nanomaterials. Ray Gibbs, ICL's Commercial Directory was kind enough to update us on Haydale's new inks and more aspects of their business and technology.

Haydale developed their own Split-Plasma process to convert mined graphite ore into functionalised graphene flakes (nanoplatelets). This scalable and environmentally friendly method is claimed to be significantly quicker and substantially more cost efficient than other methods. Split-Plasma does not damage the materials and can be controlled to provide appropriate functionalisation levels that are not restricted to the chemical groups associated with other "wet" chemistry processing methods. One of its unique characteristics is that the process can (and has) been used to functionalise synthetically produced graphene materials.

A few days ago we reported on Bluestone Global Tech's new graphene based Field Effect Transistors. We have discussed it with BGT and have some more details on this exciting development. So first of all, we reported that the Gray-FETs are currently offered for research only, but BGT says that they are using a fab that can produce these in volume "to meet most demands". So this is suitable for commercial applications.

In fact BGT is already in talks with several academic and industrial customers. Having a standard GFET product can save a lot of time and will enable those customers to develop their own products based on these transistors faster then if they need to first develop the GFET themselves.

A few month ago we reported on Carbyne, a chain of carbon atoms linked either by alternate triple and single bonds or by consecutive double bonds, which was found to be twice as strong as graphene. Carbyne is difficult to synthesize (it does not exist in nature, but it may exist in interstellar space) but a few years ago researchers managed to make carbyne chains up to 44 atoms long in solution.

Now researchers from Rice University have performed more theoretical calculations on this new material. They say that a Carbyne nano-rod (also called nano-ropes) is pretty much like a very thin (one-atom wide) graphene ribbon. When you twist this nano-rod, you change the band gap of the material.

Back in May, Lomiko Metals, Stony Brook University (SBU) and Graphene Labs signed an agreement to investigate graphene based applications - mainly supercapacitors and batteries. Here's Lomiko Metals' CEO, Paul Gill explaining the company's graphite and graphene developments, especially regarding this project:

Graphene Labs recently managed to turn Lomiko Metals' graphite into Graphene Oxide, and then turn that GO into reduced-GO (r-GO). The supercapacitor research at SBU will be based on this r-GO material.

Researchers from the University of Manchester demonstrated how membranes can be "written" on to a graphene sheet surface using a technique known as Lipid Dip-Pen Nanolithography (L-DPN). The researchers have shown that graphene is a great surface for human-cell membrane research. Graphene combined with lipids may also enable new types of bio-sensors.

The researchers wanted to find a new way to study human cell phospholipid bi-layer membranes, which protect the cells.The membranes contain proteins, ion channels and other molecules, each performing vital functions. Researchers already developed model cell membranes on surfaces outside the body for research purposes. The new research have shown that graphene is a great surface to assemble said membranes and research them.

Researchers from Rice University have used graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) to enhance a polymer material (thermoplastic polyurethane, or TPU) and make it more impermeable to pressurized gas. This could lead to much lighter gas tanks used in automobiles, soda bottles and even beer.

The researchers say that by adding the GNRs to the TPU, it made it a thousand times harder for gas molecules to escape through the material - even though the GNRs amount to 0.5% of the composite's weight. The GNRs were evenly dispersed through the material and were simply blocking the path for the gas molecules (graphene is totally impermeable, even for helium atoms).

Aixtron announced today that China's National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST) ordered a BM R&D system to grow graphene and CNTs on 2" substrates.

Dr. Qing Dai from NCNST says that their research currently focuses on the characterization of CNTs and on plasmonic properties of graphene. They aim to build nanophotonic devices such as terahertz waveguides. The BM system will also be used to grow 3D nanostructures combining CNT and graphene.

Bluestone Global Tech announced a new groundbreaking product today, the world's first graphene based Field Effect Transistor. BGT's Grat-FET is a wafer with 9 different GFET chips (or FET arrays), each with 64 FETs. Grat-FET is aimed towards research and development work and not for commercial production.

BGT's GFETs are fabricated (using CVD) on a silicon wafer covered with a SiO₂ layer. The high mobility (2000 cm²/Vs or more) graphene is used as the transistor channel. Each transistor consists of three terminals: source and drain metal electrodes and a global back gate.

Researchers from the University of Texas and the University of Science and Technology of China developed a new graphene-like material (called VOPO₄) that can be useful as a working electrode of flexible supercapacitors together with graphene.

VOPO₄, which is less than 6 atoms, was developed by using a 2-2-propanol-assisted ultrasonic method to exfoliate bulk VOPO₄·2H₂O into VOPO₄ nanosheets. The researchers created a hybrid graphene-VOPO₄ sheet that achieves both high planar conductivity and better electrochemical performance compared to pure graphene.

Researchers from Germany's HZB Institute for Silicon Photovoltaics discovered that graphene retains its impressive conductive properties even when coated with a thin silicon film. The researchers hope this discovery will lead into graphene adoption in thin-film photovoltaics.

The researchers grew a graphene sheet on a copper, and transferred it to a glass substrate. Then they coated it with a silicon layer. They tested both amorphous silicon (a-Si) and poly-crystalline silicon. Measurements of carrier mobility using the Hall-effect showed that the mobility of charge carriers within the embedded graphene layer is roughly 30 times greater than that of conventional zinc oxide based contact layers.