Canadian graphite mining company Mason Graphite announced that it acquired up to a 40% stake in NanoXplore for $700,000. Mason Graphite will raise the funds from a fully subscribed (by the company's management and a major shareholder) private placement.

NanoXplore is an R&D company that is developing a graphene production method. NanoXplore makes graphene from graphite, and the deal also states that Mason Graphite will become the company's exclusive graphite supplier and also its sales distributor.

Researchers from the SLAC lan in Stanford University developed a new method to make 2D material molybdenum diselenide or MoSe₂ that has possible applications in photoelectronic devices, such as light detectors and solar cells, and perhaps also novel electronic devices.

This is the first time single-layer MoSe₂ has been efficiently produced. The method they developed is based on molecular beam epitaxy, and starts with molybdenum and selenium, which are heated in a vacuum chamber until they evaporate. The two elements combined as a thin film. By tweaking the process, they managed to create thin films - one to eight atoms thick. Those sheets were grown on graphene substrates. 

CVD Equipment developed a new method to produce large-size high-quality CVD graphene in increased quantity and at a lower cost. The company filed provisional patents covering the technology.

The company says they actually developed "classes of production solutions" that can be tailored for different graphene applications. The company plans to ship new CVD systems that use this technology (called EasyTube) in Q2 2014. They are also developing more platforms. 

Researchers from Japan's NIMS institute developed a way to produce products based on structured graphene that is 'glued' to a 3D strutted framework.

The researchers say their method was inspired by the blown sugar art, and they call it the "chemical blowing method". In their method, glucose and ammonium salt are mixed and heated (at 250 degrees Celsius), which results in glucose-deriving polymers. The released ammonia gases blow polymers by creating pressure from within.

Researchers from Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have discovered a new 2D material (which they call Stanene) that may conduct electricity better than graphene. Stanene is actually a topological insulator - and as such its edges conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency.

Stanene is similar to graphene, but it is made from tin atoms. The researchers say it is the first material to conduct electricity with 100% efficiency at the temperatures that computer chips operate. Of course this is all currently just theoretical predictions, but hopefully soon experiments will confirm those predictions.

Resaerchers from Japan's National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) developed a method to tune the band-gap of graphene oxide. The new method changes the bonding state of carbon atoms that compose graphene through reversible absorption and desorption of oxygen atoms on the graphene, and tuning the band-gap in situ.

The researchers say that this method enables band-gap tuning in a non-volatile manner - the tuned band-gap continues to exist even when voltage supply is stopped. To control the absorption and desorption of oxygen atoms on the graphene, the group used solid electrolytes in which hydrogen ions can move, thereby causing electrochemical reactions between oxygen atoms, which are chemically bonded to the graphene, and hydrogen ions.

Update: Cientifica failed to raise the money it required to stay in business, and the company is no longer in operation, and the deal with London Graphene never materialized.

Cientifica announced that it has signed an exclusivity agreement with London Graphene Ltd to develop technology using graphene for energy storage. The two companies will produce a joint business plan for the development of the technology, to raise further funds to facilitate the plan and negotiate terms to work together in the future.

This represents Cientifica's first public deal. They say that the agreement (which runs until April 30, 2014, apparently it just covers the business plan part) may possibly lead to Cientifica acquiring or merging with London Graphene. This is actually the first time I hear of London Graphene, and I couldn't find any real information on this company yet.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warned investors about potential scams involving the sale of graphene. It seems that companies approached investors offering them to buy graphene materails, in anticipation that prices will increase in the future as graphene becomes popular.

This of course does not make any sense - if graphene indeed enters the market, graphene prices will most likely drop fast as companies improve their manufacturing processes and increase capacity.

Researchers from MIT discovered that under a powerful magnetic field and at very low temperatures, graphene can filter electrons according to the direction of their spin. This is something that cannot be done by any conventional electronic system - and may make graphene very useful for quantum computing.

It is known that when a magnetic field is turned on perpendicular to a graphene flake, current flows only along the edge, and in one direction (clockwise or counterclockwise, depending on the magnetic field orientation), while the bulk graphene sheet remains insulating. This is called the Quantum Hall effect.