The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $1.7 million grant to the University of California, Riverside (UCR) towards a project that aims to characterize, analyze and synthesize a new class of ultra-thin (mostly 2D) film materials.

The project aims to develop Van Der Waals materials, and heterostructures implemented with such materials. The researchers aim to start with new synthesis techniques that will allow them to produce new materials, and then to investigate novel electrical, optical, and thermal phenomena in such materials and heterostructures.

Morgan Advanced Materials signed a joint-development agreement with the University of Manchester to scale-up a new graphene manufacturing process.

MAM has been involved with carbon processing for over 150 years, and has been working with the University since 2010 on the projects.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) announced it will open a new research center that will focus on 2D materials. The so-called "2D Materials Center" (2MC?) will receive $40 million USD in funding in the next 10 years from the National Research Foundation.

The NUS Graphene Research Center, which opened in 2010, will become a part of the new 2D Materials Center. The 2MC will have about 50 researchers from multiple disciplines. In addition to graphene, two other materials that will be the focus of initial research will be Phosphorene and Molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂).

Two weeks ago, Graphene Frontier announced that they raised $1.6 million, which will be used to expand operations and accelerate the development of their proprietary GFET sensors and manufacturing process. Graphene Frontiers launched the "six sensors" brand for highly-sensitive chemical and biological GFET-based sensors that can be used to diagnose diseases with multiple markers such as cancers and illnesses currently diagnosed using ELISA technologies.

I asked the company to explain a little more on this interesting new sensor platform. It turns out that the sensor is based on a functionalized graphene field effect transistor (GFET). The unique properties of graphene enable detection of molecules in femtomolar (fM) concentrations - this is vastly better than any other sensor on the market.