Elcora Resources announces work on an innovative graphene production process

Elcora Resources announced that it is working the development of a unique graphene production process, which can use a wide variety of graphite sources as raw material to produce consistent high quality graphene.

The Elcora system uses vertical integration in the mining, processing, and refining to optimize the graphite for the process. The company has developed a new industrial process, which it refers to as 'a trade secret', that is capable of transforming Elcora graphite into high quality graphene. The synthesis of the graphene itself does not depend on the graphite source as long as it is properly processed, meaning that the Elcora process can be used with a wide range of graphite sources.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 12,2016

Graphene-enhanced film shuts down li-ion batteries before overheating and restarts upon cooling

Researchers at Stanford University have developed a revolutionary graphene-enhanced polyethylene film that prevents a lithium-ion battery from overheating, then restarts the battery when it cools. This new technology could prevent fires and melt-downs in a wide range of battery-powered devices.

The researchers in this study recently invented a wearable sensor to monitor human body temperature, made of a plastic material embedded with tiny particles of nickel with nanoscale spikes protruding from their surface. For the battery experiment, they coated the spiky nickel particles with graphene and embedded the particles in a thin film of elastic polyethylene. They then attached the film to one of the battery electrodes so that an electric current could flow through it. The researchers explain that in order to conduct electricity, the spiky particles have to physically touch one another, but during thermal expansion, polyethylene stretches. That causes the particles to spread apart, making the film non-conductive so that electricity can no longer flow through the battery.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 12,2016 - 1 comment

Graphene sheet enables first ever pictures of single proteins

Researchers at the University of Zurich in Switzerland have managed to use graphene to deliver the world's first picture of a single protein. Taking pictures of proteins help scientists understand proteins'  structure and functions, which is vital for treating diseases in which proteins go wrong, like Alzheimer’s. But imaging methods such as X-ray crystallography or cryo-electron microscopy rely on averaging readings from millions of molecules (granting a blurry view), since illuminating molecules with X-rays or high-energy electrons can damage the protein. 

The scientists started by spraying a solution of the proteins onto a sheet of graphene, fixing the proteins in place. Then they placed this under an electron holographic microscope, which uses interference patterns between electrons to produce an image. While this kind of instrument relies on low-energy electrons that don’t damage the protein, it is also less able to penetrate through to the microscope’s detector - which is where graphene comes in handy as the substrate can be made thin enough to have the electrons passing through.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 09,2016

Will Samsung incorporate graphene electrodes in their upcoming OLED TVs?

The OLED Association, a trade group that promotes OLED technologies, published an interesting article in which they give predictions for the OLED market. The Association sees Samsung returning to the OLED TV market in 2017, and those upcoming OLED TVs will use several new technologies - including graphene-based transparent electrodes.

Last month we reported that researchers at Korea's ETRI developed transparent graphene-based electrodes for OLED panels. The researchers say that these new electrodes improve the transparency and "image quality" of OLEDs by 40 to 60 percent, compared to current silver-based electrodes. The researchers aim to continue the research and improve the performance of their electrodes.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 07,2016

Graphene Platform and AzTrong announce collaboration

Japan-based Graphene Platform announced a cooperation with the American AzTrong. The companies will join forces in this collaboration to develop several graphene applications, customized for customers, like capacitors, batteries, plastic composites and more. Also, the joint efforts will include sales, marketing and distribution of these products.

The companies state that they welcome the advancement of developing graphene and its applications and estimate the accumulative sales revenue brought by the alliance will be at hundreds of millions of US dollars by year 2020.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 05,2016

Graphene membranes to aid in cleaning nuclear waste and producing heavy water

Researchers at the University of Manchester have demonstrated that graphene can simplify the production of heavy water and help clean nuclear waste by filtering different isotopes of hydrogen. The process could assist in producing heavy water for nuclear power plants with ten times less energy, making it simpler and cheaper.

Membranes made from graphene can act as a sieve, separating protons nuclei of hydrogen from heavier nuclei of hydrogen isotope deuterium. Deuterium is in wide use in analytical and chemical tracing technologies and, also, as heavy water required in thousands of tons for operation of nuclear power stations. The heaviest isotope, tritium, is radioactive and needs to be safely removed as a by-product of electricity generation at nuclear fission plants. Future nuclear technology is based on fusion of the two heavy isotopes.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 05,2016 - 1 comment

Graphene-Info's top 10 graphene applications of 2015

The Graphene-Info team would like to wish all of its readers a very happy new year! 2015 has been a busy year for graphene, with many reports of new developments, ideas and progress. Here are the year's top 10 graphene applications, ranked by the number of posts written about them:

  1. Electronics
  2. Sensors
  3. Batteries
  4. Medicine
  5. Composites
  6. Supercapacitors
  7. Coating
  8. 3D printing
  9. Solar
  10. Displays

Electronics was this year's most-mentioned topic, with a considerable amount of interest and developments in the field. Sensors' presence at the second place is a bit of a surprise, as there seemed to be more "action" in topics like composites and 3D printing.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 03,2016