June 2014

One of the projects that was selected for the 2nd-stage of the EU's Graphene Flagship initiative is called iGCAuto, led by the University of Sunderland. This project partners will try and see how graphene and graphene-composite materials an be used in the automotive industry.

The focus of the project will be to find new materials that can make vehicles lighter and safer. The partners include Fiat, the Fraunhofer ICT, Interquimica, Nanesa and Delta-Tech. The partners will investigate different nanocomposites with different polymer matrices.

The recent years interest in graphene started when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov first managed to isolate the material by using the 'scotch-tape' method. This simply and "primitive" method eventually led to their Nobel-Prize in 2010, and the graphene boom started.

But atomic processes behind the micromechanical cleavage in this method have never been really understood - until now. A research team from Russia, the USA and Finland researched the physics, kinetics and energetics behind the regarded this method, using molybdenum disulphide (MoS₂) as the model material.

There's an interesting post discussing Qingdao Unique Products Develop's new huge (12x12 meter) 3D printer, unveiled during a trade show in China. The company says that in the future it will be used to print buildings. The printing material is said to be a fiberglass-graphene composite which should enable it to create very strong objects.

The first task for this printer is to print a replica of Beijing's Temple of Heaven. The replica will be 7 meters in diameter, 8 meters high. It will take about 6 months to print.

Researchers from Australia's Anstro institute and Deakin University developed an efficient method to prepare porous and reduced graphene oxide. They say that this one-step, catalyst-free, high penetration and through-put technique offers for the first time a significant advantage over previously reported graphene oxide (GO) solution reduction mechanisms.

The new technique, which uses gamma irradiation, maintains the naturally densely packed morphology of GO bucky-papers without causing the dramatic exfoliation of the graphene layers caused by chemically reduced routes.

Australian graphite company, Bora Bora Resources (ASX: BBR) agreed to acquire up to 50% in Sri-Lanka's RS Mines limited. RS has a graphite mine in Sri Lanka that is currently producing graphite. RSM also developed a process to produce graphene-oxide from this graphite.

RSM is supplying graphene oxide to several companies and institutions - mostly for testing of its own material. The company is the sole supplier of graphite to Norway's Graphene Batteries.

Exactly five years ago, on June 25 2009, I posted the first post on Graphene-Info (a new technique for stamping many graphene sheets onto a substrate at once). I was already interested in graphene for a while then (first hearing about it while working on some OLED news, most likely), but of course it took me a while before I decided to launch this new site.

Back then I didn't think Graphene will take off so quickly. This was before the 2010 Novel Prize and before most people even heard about graphene. I think I was very lucky to stumble upon this technology so early. Anyway - happy birthday to my own site, and I hope that within the next five years we'll see graphene-enabled products that actually enable us to lead better and simpler lives.

It seems that graphene-based 3D printing is heating up. The latest company to conduct research towards this goal is 3D Graphtech Industries, a new company established by Australian miner Kibaran Resources and the 3D Group.

3D Graphtech (which will actually be established later in 2014) will mainly research the use of expanded graphite for the 3D printing process, but will also research the use of graphene. The company will exclusively source its graphite from Kibrana's Tanzania graphite mine. The company will attempt to engage in collaborative research programs and will seek partnership for this development.

In October 2013, Europe launched its ambitions $1 billion 10-year Graphene Flagship research initiative. Back then the project's consortium included 75 partners from 17 countries. Today it was announced that 66 new partners are joining the program, which will also bring the number of participating countries to 19.

These new partners joined following a €9 million competitive call, which is part of the €54 million ramp-up phase in 2014-2015. The project received 218 proposals from 738 organizations and 37 countries. 21 proposals out of those 218 were selected for funding. The project coordinator, theoretical physicist Jari Kinaret at Chalmers University, said that the response for the competitive call was "overwhelming" - a strong indicator of the recognition for and trust in the flagship effort throughout Europe.

Researchers from Penn State University and Japan's Shinshu University developed a simple and scalable process to make strong, stretchable graphene oxide fibers. Those fibers can easily be scrolled into yarns that have strengths approaching that of Kevlar.

The new GO fiber is the strongest carbon fiber ever. The researchers believe that pockets of air inside the fiber keep it from being brittle. But those fibers can also be altered to make other useful materials. For example, removing the oxygen results in a fiber with high electrical conductivity, while adding silver nanorods increases the conductivity (to the same level as copper, while being much lighter than copper).

The University of Surrey in the UK is establishing a graphene center, within its Advanced Technology Institute (ATI). The Institute will extend its research into the uses and manufacture of graphene across such applications as high frequency electronics, flexible and transparent electronics, smart coatings and interconnect technology. The university is also interested in using graphene in solar cells, supercacitors, printed transistors and OLED displays.

The ATI developed Photo Thermal deposition technology that can deposit electronic grade graphene on wafer scale substrates. The tool performs catalyst deposition and graphene growth, allowing high volume production. The graphene center received more than £1.2 million (over $2 million) from the EPSRC, NPL and a range of industrial companies. Academic partners in the new center include the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester, Imperial, Exeter, Trinity College Dublin and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.