January 2015

President Obama recently visited Boise State University to take in some of the school's 3D printing technology, as well as the new College of Innovation. Obama went to Boise State’s College of Engineering and the school’s New Product Development Lab, which is a collaboration at the Engineering school and managed by the College of Business and Economics.

Among the various prototypes and 3D printed objects, Obama was exposed to Boise State's work on 3D printing electronics, using flexible, light, and conductive graphene nano-materials, which can be printed in stacks onto small, inexpensive sensors, and resistors. 

SNNLive interviewed Paul Gill, president and CEO of Lomiko Metals, to discuss Graphene 3D Lab's operation, elaborate on graphene and its potential applications and shed some light on Lomiko Metals' plans for 2015: 

A scientist from the American Washington University, by the name of John D. Fortner (PhD), received the prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The five-year, $500,000 award is for his project titled Development and Application of Crumpled Graphene Oxide-Based Nanocomposites as a Platform Material for Advanced Water Treatment.

Fortner will aim to develop 3D nanoscale composites made of crumpled graphene oxide as multifunctional platform materials for advanced water treatment technologies. Along with material synthesis and characterization, he plans to develop a range of membrane assemblies for advanced water treatment, including crumpled graphene oxide nanocomposites, which are highly water-permeable, photoreactive and antimicrobial. There is a patent pending for this platform technology.

Graphenea announced the closing of a successful financial year, with 2014 sales at over $1.2 million. This figure means that the company more than doubled its 2013 result.

In addition, the company relays it has a positive cash flow, making it a profitable business. Graphenea maintains that most of its customer base has returned for orders last year, making a statement about the reliably and high quality of the graphene on sale.

The official opening of the University of Manchester's National Graphene Institute will be marked by a special piece of music, dedicated to graphene.

A young artist called Sara Lowes was granted a £12,000 commission to compose a unique theme that will be written especially for the material. She spent time at the University of Manchester in order to get to know the material and draw inspiration to help her with the creative process.

A strategic cooperation agreement of a mass production of graphene technology transfer has recently been signed between the Korean UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Technology) and Deokyang Energen Corp. (one of Korea's prominent industrial gas producers). 

Under this agreement, the technology for mass production of graphene will be moved to Deokyang Energen Corp. and will be widely used for commercial applications. Ulsan says that the value of this technique is about $1 billion USD and 1.5% of total gross, created from this technique will be also added to this value as a license issue fee.

In November 2014, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the University of Manchester signed an agreement to collaborate in realizing graphene's potential and work on the development of graphene metrology, characterization and standards.

Now, the NPL researchers are working on characterization techniques that can be used in real time on large amounts of graphene. One such technique is microwave measurement, where a graphene film is placed in a microwave field and disturbs the field. The extent of the disturbance indicates the sheet resistance and conductivity.

Xolve, an american nanotechnology firm, raised $1.8 million (of a proposed $2.8 million funding round), with twenty-one investors taking part in the funding so far. This brings the amount the company raised in the last four years to $6.4 million.

J. Patrick Frantz from PlanarTech was a great sport and answered this week's personal Graphene-Info questions. Read what he has to say and don't forget to contact us here if you wish to also be featured.

The Graphene Flagship announced a work package that explores the potential of graphene spintronics for future devices and applications. It is searching for a new partner company to support device development and commercialisation of graphene spintronics, by applying it in specific device architectures dedicated to commercially viable applications and determining the required figures of merits. This can include devices which require optimised (long distance) spin transport, spin-based sensors, and new integrated two-dimensional spin valve architectures.

The Graphene Flagship expects that at the start of the Horizon 2020 phase (April 2016), spin injection and spin transport in graphene and related materials will have been characterised and the resulting functional properties will have been understood and modelled.