Talga Resources announced the commissioning of its Phase 2 processing plant in Germany, an expansion which will bring about increased capacity for their development of graphene production techniques. While Talga is not yet up to full scale mining at its Vittangi project in Sweden, it has aimed to develop graphite and graphene product specifications and identify applications that will improve the performance of existing industrial materials.

New production cells installed at the Rudolstadt test-work facility have upgraded processing ability from 10kg to 50kg slabs of graphite per cell, with a total ore feed capacity of 365kg. Talga utilizes electrochemical exfoliation to unzip layers of graphite at the atomic level from raw slabs of high grade Vittangi graphite, as well as a proprietary recovery and concentration process.

A U.S-based startup called GraphWear is developing a graphene-based patch that can analyze sweat and communicate its findings via mobile app. It points out important physical information, like when there is a need to drink water in order to prevent a muscle cramp, glucose levels and more. The company is currently focusing on athletes as a target customer but hopes to develop healthcare applications further down the line.

The startup is currently part of the Science Center’s Digital Health Accelerator (DHA), and GraphWear received $50,000 from the DHA, as well as $50,000 from Dreamit Health, in exchange for 8% equity.

The Graphene Flagship, Europe's €1 billion graphene-targeted research initiative, announced the creation of a new Work Package devoted to Biomedical Technologies. This initiative is led by the University of Manchester (UK), and ICREA. The new Work Package will focus on the development of implants based on graphene and 2D-materials that have therapeutic functionalities for specific clinical outcomes, in disciplines such as neurology, ophthalmology and surgery. It will include research in three main areas: Materials Engineering; Implant Technology & Engineering; and Functionality and Therapeutic Efficacy. The objective is to explore novel implants with therapeutic capacity that will be further developed in the next phases of the Graphene Flagship.

The Materials Engineering area will be devoted to the production, characterization, chemical modification and optimization of graphene materials that will be adopted for the design of implants and therapeutic element technologies. Its results will be applied by the Implant Technology and Engineering area on the design of implant technologies. Several teams will work in parallel on retinal, cortical, and deep brain implants, as well as devices to be applied in the periphery nerve system. Finally, The Functionality and Therapeutic Efficacy area activities will center on development of devices that, in addition to interfacing the nerve system for recording and stimulation of electrical activity, also have therapeutic functionality.

A team of researchers from Seoul National University designed an autonomous graphene vessel for collecting and storing spilled oil. The graphene vessel selectively separates the oil, then collects and stores the captured oil in the vessel all by itself without any need for an external power input.

This prototype graphene vessel relies on capillarity and gravity that work together to fill it with the spilled oil at a rate higher than 20,000 liters per square meter per hour with oil purity better than 99.9%. The research also showed that when an oil spill occurs in bad weather and at rough seas, the graphene vessels can be left at the site to collect oil and then picked up later when conditions have returned to normal.

We're happy to announce a new market report, Graphene for the Display and Lighting industries. This report, brought to you by the world's leading Graphene and OLED experts, is a comprehensive guide to the applications of graphene in these two important markets. Graphene is an exciting material that promises to revolutionize entire industries - and it has a bright future in the display and lighting industries.

Reading this report, you'll learn all about:

• Graphene applications in LED and OLED lighting
• Graphene's adoption as a backplane for AMOLEDs
• Transparent graphene electrodes
• Graphene-based encapsulation development

Other topics include:

• Graphene companies involved with display and lighting
• An introduction to graphene
• An introduction to lighting and displays
• Details about graphene for QDs, lasers and thermal foils

Researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and Nanyang Technological University reported graphene oxide-based microbots (GOx-microbots) that can clean up toxic heavy metals in contaminated water. Tests showed around 95% of lead recovery within in an hour, and these findings may result in reducing the introduction of additional contaminants during water cleaning attempts, and salvaging lead for recycling.

The scientists state that these microbots are more efficient than their predecessors and remove lead 10 times more efficiently than nonmotile GOx-microbots, cleaning water from 1000 ppb down to below 50 ppb in 60 min. The microbots are built on nanosized multilayers of graphene oxide, nickel, and platinum. Researchers say the bots' graphene oxide outer coat captures suspended lead, the inner platinum layer decomposes hydrogen peroxide for self-propulsion, and the middle nickle band allows the machines to be magnetically retrieved from the water. In addition, the autonomous machines can be reused as soon as lead is chemically separated.

Researchers at MIT and Harvard University fabricated nanoscrolls made from graphene oxide flakes for water purification applications, at a much lower cost than that of graphene membranes. The team was able to control the dimensions of each nanoscroll, using both low- and high-frequency ultrasonic techniques.

The researchers say that these nanoscrolls could also be used as ultralight chemical sensors, drug delivery vehicles, and hydrogen storage platforms, in addition to water filters. Also, the ability to tune the dimensions of these architectures may open a window to industry, in combination with the more affordable production costs.

Graphene Nanochem agreed to restructure its debt with its Malaysian lenders - and as part of the deal Nanochem will sell its non-core business and exit from low-margin operations.

Graphene Nanochem has about £16 million in debt to Malaysia Debt Venture, and the maturity on that debt was pushed back from November 2015 to the end of 2012 (at an interest rate of 8%). The company will pay its remaining £12 million long-term debt by selling its fuel additive assets and palm oil refinery.

Australia-based Imagine IM announced that Australia plans to become the first country to use graphene in the large scale manufacture of an industrial product; The company had entered into a licensing agreement with Australian geotextiles manufacturer, Geofabrics Australasia, and the insight gained from working with Geofabrics was key to the development of the graphene manufacturing solution. Geofabrics is scheduled to provide the marketplace with the first of its graphene-coated geotextile products in August 2016.

The agreement will see Geofabrics become the exclusive Australian licensee of Imagine IM's graphene coating technology for applications in geotextiles. Geofabrics will use the technology to offer Australian civil engineering companies significantly improved capacity to locate and remedy leaks with applications in landfill and mining construction.

A team of researchers at Brown University developed a composite catalyst using nitrogen-rich graphene dotted with copper nanoparticles. It was shown in a study that the new catalyst is able to efficiently and selectively convert carbon dioxide to ethylene, one of the world's most important commodity chemicals that is used to make plastics, construction materials and other products.

Chemical companies produce ethylene by the millions of tons each year using processes that usually involve fossil fuels. If excess carbon dioxide can indeed be used to make ethylene, like the results of this study imply, it could help make the chemical industry become more sustainable and eco-friendly. There is, however, much more work to be done before bringing such a process to an industrial scale.