November 2013

Researchers from Nokia's Research Center in Cambridge developed a new humidity sensor based on graphene oxide. The researchers say that the new sensor is ultra fast (the fastest humidity sensor ever reported, in fact), thanks to the graphene 2D structure and its superpermeability to water molecules. The sensor Nokia developed is thin (15 nm), transparent and flexible.

The sensor's response and recovery time (the time to go from 10% to 90% of the high humidity value and vice versa) is less than 100 ms. The response rate is a function of the thickness of the GO, the thicker the film, the slower the sensor. Nokia has filed several patent applications regarding this work.

A couple of weeks ago Graphene Nanochem announced that it hopes to start selling htier graphene-enhanced PlatDrill drilling fluid soon, and now the company announced that they signed an agreement with Malaysia's Scomi Oiltools, a global supplier of drilling fluid services. Scomi will exclusively market a range of formulated PlatDrill series to the oilfield chemicals market.

Graphene NanoChem says that PlatDrill fluids deliver superior performance with lower environmental impact as well as better lubricity, load bearing capacity and higher viscosity properties. The first of the PlatDrill series were tested successfully tested and earmarked for deployment in Malaysia and Myanmar (pending the identification of suitable well sites by Scomi's customers).

Localized hyperthermia is a solid tumor treatment that uses heat (above 43 degrees Celsius) to boost the cytotoxic effects of chemotherapy or radiotherapy and also increases the permeability of tumor cells to drugs. Graphene Oxide is a possible agent because it absorbs light in the near-infrared range.

Researchers from Portugal and Spain studied in vitro laser dosage and cell irradiation exposure time. It was discovered that cell culture temperature (after irradiating cells that had taken up graphene oxide) increases preferentially with laser power rather than with exposure time. Moreover, when the laser power is increased, cell necrosis leads to an increase of cytokine release to the surrounding medium.

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Turkey's Grafen and Germany's LUM launched a new research towards water-based colloidal exfoliation process (called Liquid-Phase Direct Chemical Exfoliation)to produce graphene nanoplatelets in bulk. Grafen says that the new process is environmentally friendly, and will enable low-cost GNP production.

The companies report that initial phase research has already provided them with some strong results. The process converts large volume of raw graphite powder to graphene GNPs with nearly pristine crystal structure.

Graphene Labs launched a new company called Graphene 3D Labs that will focus on the development of high-performance graphene-enhanced materials for 3D Printing. Lomiko Metals will be the exclusive graphite provider to the new company, and they will also invest $50,000.

This is not the first project to develop such technology. Just last month we reported that American Graphite Technologies (AGT) launched a research project in collaboration with Ukraine's Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology that will develop graphene-based working materials for 3D printing.

Researchers from the University at Buffalo developed a way to identify the electronic properties of individual graphene sheets in a stack of graphene sheets. The method works even when the sheets are covering each other up.

The idea is to shoot a beam of infrared light on the graphene stack, and measure how the light polarization (direction of oscillation) changes when it bounces back from the graphene sheets. The researchers say the new technique is ultra sensitive and it allowed them to examine dozens of sheets in a single stack.

In April 2013 XG Sciences launched new graphene-based anode materials for Li-Ion batteries that has four times the capacity of conventional anodes. The new anode materials use the XG's xGnP graphene nanoplatelets to stabilize silicon particles in a nano-engineered composite structure. Today XG Sciences has been awarded $1 million in funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE) for continued development of these lithium-ion battery materials.

XG Sciences says that their anode materials offer battery manufacturers opportunities to create batteries with much greater energy storage capacity without significantly increasing the battery size. The DOE funded a two-year program, during which XGS will lead a multifunctional research team that includes battery maker A123 Systems and the Georgia Institute of Technology, who will participate in prototype cell build, testing, and advanced characterization and analysis.

Researchers from the University of Manchester are developing a new graphene-latex composite for use in condoms. The researchers hope that graphene will enable thinner, stronger and safer condoms - which makes sense as graphene is very thin and light but yet strong, transparent and flexible. The researchers have been awarded £62,000 ($100,000) by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The researchers say that the new composite material will be "tailored to enhance the natural sensation during intercourse while using a condom, which should encourage and promote condom use".

As we reported yesterday, Applied Graphene Materials (previously Durham Graphene Science) raised £10 million by going public in the UK's AIM stock exchange today. The IPO was very successful - the shares leaped over 17% in the first day, and the market value of the company is now £36.7 (almost $60 million).

AGM was established in 2010 as a spin-off from Durham University to develop a new graphene synthesis method and produce graphene materials. AGM's technology is a unique patented scalable 'bottom-up' CVD approach to produce graphene. The company was founded by Dr. Karl Coleman from Durham University.