November 2015

Sunvault Energy announced that it, in conjunction with the Edison Power Company, has completed the development of a graphene-enhanced Smartphone Battery Case that is built initially for the IPhone. Smartphone case designs for major brands such as LG and Samsung and other Smartphone manufactured devices are to follow shortly. The Company will be submitting this prototype for certification and verification.

The Battery Case will provide approximately 5000 mAh (milliamp hours) of energy to the first prototype IPhone model. The case will charge in roughly 3 minutes and will provide approximately 200% of additional power for most smartphones that are in the average 2400 mAh battery range. In addition to the fast charging, the case will not experience or generate any significant heat, and will have the unique attributes of both a battery and supercapacitor. Additional attributes will include superior cycles that will go far beyond the Lithium Ion spec of 500 cycles of charge / discharge before battery requires replacement. It will also be considerably lighter than current products on the market. The Company will start by focusing on the top Smartphone lines, which include: Samsung, Apple IPhone, Lenovo, LG, Huawei, Xiaomi and Sony.

Garmor, the University of Central Florida spin-off formed to develop a new graphene oxide flakes production process, has developed graphene oxide-based coatings useful for limiting UV radiation damage to sensors and polymers. Garmor’s transparent GO-films are reprtedly derived from a commercially-viable and scalable process that can be readily implemented with minimal constraints.

Four layers of GO coating on polycarbonate

One of the most promising applications for this material is for coating plastics and polymers susceptible to UV degradation. While a single-layer GO-film maintains greater than 96% transparency in the visible spectrum, the GO-film significantly reduces the transmission of UV radiation below 360nm. Such a film could prove quite beneficial for coating a variety of products including polycarbonate automotive products, photovoltaic panels, and skylights. Transparent GO-films have great potential for use as sensors thanks, in part, to its low resistivity and UV protective coating application. Applications include use as a defogger element, integrated antenna, UV protective element in a windshield, and visor use in a disposable sensor.

A new joint innovation by the University of Cambridge and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the UK’s National Measurement Institute, could lead to redefining the ampere in terms of fundamental constants of physics.

The international system of units (SI) comprises seven base units (the metre, kilogram, second, Kelvin, ampere, mole and candela) which should be stable over time and universally reproducible. This requires definitions based on fundamental constants of nature which are the same wherever you measure them. As of now, however, the definition of the Ampere is prone to instability. The highest global measurement authority, the Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures, has proposed that the ampere be re-defined in terms of the electron charge.

A team of international scientists, led by the University of Exeter and carried out as part of an EU project, have engineered a fascinating hybrid structure, or metamaterial, that possesses specific characteristics that are not found in natural materials.

The collaborative team combined nanoribbons of graphene, in which electrons are able to oscillate backwards and forwards, together with a type of antenna called a split ring resonator. A specific design combining these two elements lead to a system which strongly interacts with electromagnetic radiation, according to the researchers. In these experiments, the team used light with very long wavelengths, far beyond what the human eye can see, to show that these new structures can be used as a type of optical switch to interrupt, and turn on and off, a beam of this light very quickly.

Researchers at the University of Belgrade in Serbia have built the world’s first graphene-based condenser microphone, relying on graphene's ability to detect faint and high frequency sound waves. The microphone is about 32 times more sensitive than traditional nickel microphones over a range of audible frequencies. The scientists also say that in the future, graphene microphones may be able to pick up sound well beyond the range of human hearing.

The researchers used a CVD process to create sheets of graphene on a nickel foil substrate. They then etched the nickel away and placed the remaining graphene sheet (about 60 layers thick) in a commercial microphone casing, where it acts as a vibrating membrane, converting sound to electric current. Albeit just a prototype for now, this graphene mic boasts 15 decibels higher sensitivity than commercial microphones, at frequencies of up to 11 kHz. What's even more interesting is that model simulations indicate that a far more sensitive graphene microphone is theoretically possible. At 300 layers thick, a graphene vibrating membrane may be able to detects frequencies of up to 1MHz — approximately fifty times higher than the upper limit of human hearing.

Saint Jean Carbon, a company engaged in the development of natural graphite properties and related carbon products, has announced that it has received another grant from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), In addition to the grant received in October 2015.

The funds will be used to further the material knowledge of the Saint Jean Carbon ferromagnetic graphene. This research is the next step in the development of understanding where the material can be used in future applications, and provides a further understanding of the unique properties contained in the ferromagnetic graphene. The company states that the funds provide it with a very special opportunity to work with top universities like Western University, and their bioengineering team.

Researchers at MIT conducted simulations and reached a new theory, according to which a sheet of graphene could be used to make X-rays. In this method, the graphene is used to generate surface waves called plasmons when the sheet is struck by photons from a laser beam. These plasmons in turn could be triggered to generate a sharp pulse of radiation, tuned to wavelengths anywhere from infrared light to X-rays.

The radiation produced by the system would be of a uniform wavelength and tightly aligned, similar to that from a laser beam. The researchers say this could potentially enable lower-dose X-ray systems in the future, making them safer. The new system could, in principle, create ultraviolet light sources on a chip and table-top X-ray devices that could produce the sorts of beams that currently require huge, multimillion-dollar particle accelerators.

An international graphene standards and testing centre was officially launched at Zhongguancun Fengtai Science Park, Beijing, China, in October 2015. As the demand for international standards for testing graphene increases, the Centre in Beijing will lay the foundation for the development of graphene industry and high-end applications in China.

A China-UK graphene conference was held as part of the launch activities on October 24, 2015 and graphene experts from China and the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) discussed graphene R&D progress and the development of graphene international standards. The graphene conference was part of a programme of activities between NPL, Beijing Zhongguancun Fengtai Science Park and the associated Beijing Fengtai New Materials Inspection Institute (BFM), to support the development of standards and testing in China.

Graphene 3D Lab has announced Graphene Flex Foam, a new commercial product that will be available through Graphene Laboratories’ e-commerce site, Graphene Supermarket. The new product is described as a Multilayer Freestanding Flexible Graphene Foam, that brings together a conductive elastomer composite with ultra-light graphene foam.

The foam, a highly conductive 3D chemical vapor deposition (CVD), together with the composite, brings together the best of several worlds of graphene usage. As a flexible foam, the material is both lightweight and reconfigurable, adding to ease of use and handling, with a porous structure. The Graphene Flex Foam could be used in conjunction with other graphene-related materialssuch as Graphene 3D Lab’s filament offeringsin the creation of electronics and other conductive products.

In June 2014, we reported that Bora Bora Resources agreed to acquire up to 40% in Sri Lanka's RS Mines - a graphite miner and graphene oxide producer. Today RS Mines told us that that agreement was terminated (by RS Mines).

RS Mines plans to list on the Australian Stock Exchange directly (via a new company called Global Graphene Technologies). The listing will facilitate the development of the graphite resource (the Queen's Mine) in Sri Lanka - and also to initiate several graphene and graphite-related subsidiaries - mainly in the fields of energy storage devices and GO production.