Researchers at Rice University have constructed a graphene foam, reinforced by carbon nanotubes, that can support more than 3,000 times its own weight and bounce back to its original height. In addition, its shape and size are easily controlled - which the team demonstrated by creating a screw-shaped piece of the material.

The 3D structures were created from a powdered nickel catalyst, surfactant-wrapped multiwall nanotubes and sugar as a carbon source. The materials were mixed and the water evaporated; the resulting pellets were pressed into a steel die and then heated in a chemical vapor deposition furnace, which turned the available carbon into graphene. After further processing to remove remnants of nickel, the result was an all-carbon foam in the shape of the die, in this case a screw. The team said the method will be easy to scale up.

Directa Plus, a producer and supplier of graphene-based products for use in consumer and industrial markets, has teamed up with Eurojersey, an Italian producer of technical fabrics under its Sensitive Fabrics brand, to produce a range of fabrics containing the company’s graphene-based products. The new line will focus on high-performance technical fabrics targeting sportswear and underwear sectors.

The companies are conducting joint R&D to further develop the prototype textiles into product samples that will be marketed to the customers of Directa Plus and Eurojersey. The lamination of Sensitive Fabrics with Grafytherm functional membranes containing G+, distributed exclusively by Directa Textile Solutions, reportedly produces a technologically advanced fabric with unique thermal features: the presence of G+ graphene, which is highly thermally conductive, allows a homogeneous distribution of the heat produced by the human body in cold weather and a heat dispersion effect in hot weather.

Nippon Shokubai, a Japan-based global materials provider, has announced its success in mass production tests of graphene oxide-based materials. The production volume attained in the mass production test was reportedly improved dozens of times as much as that attained at laboratory, and Nippon Shokubai will start to provide graphene oxide-based materials as samples for application development.

The graphene oxide-based materials are lamellar carbon compounds with the approximately 1nm thickness and the company expects them to be suitable for various functional materials, such as lubricants, water treatment membranes, and catalysts. Nippon Shokubai stated that it has resolved various problems relating to chemical reactions of the production process and succeeded in the mass production test by utilizing its control technology for stable proceeding of chemical reactions in collaboration with Okayama University which retained academic knowledge about reaction mechanism of graphene oxide.

Skeleton Technologies, developer and manufacturer of high energy and power density supercapacitors, has received €15 million in a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB), under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).

This funding is meant to allow the company to finance the R&D for the further development of its products and systems. Skeleton will use part of the money to invest in an electrode mass-production facility in Dresden, Germany, according to the statement. The loan is stated to be based on company performance and doesn’t dilute the holdings of Skeleton’s founders, according to the EIB.

A joint research conducted by Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology and Sungkyunkwan University in Korea yielded an original technology for synthesizing amorphous graphene. Amorphous graphene is a material with different properties than crystalline graphene. It has lower conductivity and according to the researchers it can be suitable for various industries including desalination.

The team stated that the latest achievement is significant in that it has expanded the range of two-dimensional materials, It will be possible to discover new areas of application by utilizing the new characteristics of the amorphous material.

China-based FiiO Electronics launched new in-ear monitor earphones, the FiiO F3, that make use of a graphene-enhanced diaphragm driver. FiiO says that graphene enabled the development of a thin and flexible driver, which enables the F3 to faithfully reproduce music with a clean, rich, yet transparent high-fidelity sound.

The FiiO F3 is now shipping in China and in the US, you can buy one at Amazon.com now for $24.99. We talked to FiiO and they confirm the graphene membrane and explained that it was not developed by FiiO in-house. You can see a close-up of the graphene driver below.

A team of researchers affiliated with UNIST has designed a technique that greatly enhances the performance of Schottky Diodes (metal-semiconductor junction) used in electronic devices. The research findings are especially interesting as they address the contact resistance problem of metal-semiconductors.

The researchers have created a new type of diode with a graphene insertion layer sandwiched between metal and semiconductor. They demonstrated that this graphene layer not only suppresses the material intermixing substantially, but also matches well with the theoretical prediction that "In the case of silicon semiconductors, the electrical properties of the junction surfaces hardly change regardless of the type of metal they use".

Metalysis, a UK-based company focused on commercializing its proprietary electrochemical metal powder manufacturing technology, announced that it has successfully synthesized graphene using its process, with commercialization targeted towards 2017.

It was said that single-layer sheets of graphene have been synthesized at Metalysis’ industrial processing facilities, as well as bilayer and low multi-layer amalgamations. Metalysis stated that Producing graphene could enable Metalysis to add new, lucrative markets to those it is already serving; markets in which our arrival could be highly disruptive when global product demand is considered against the sheer amount of graphene we could produce in conjunction with our Gen 4, and later Gen 5 modular expansions, Vaughan said. Gen 5, by way of illustration, envisages scaling up production capability for highly profitable niche multi-metal powders to thousands of tonnes per annum.

Versarien has launched its new graphene brand, called Nanene. It is reportedly manufactured using Versarien's mechanized exfoliation process, producing material less than five atoms thick.

Versarian said Nanene can be used in a variety of applications, including carbon fibre composites. "Having moved from the R&D phase and secured our first sizable order, we are pleased to launch our new graphene brand, Nanene," said Neill Ricketts, chief executive of Versarien. "We have already demonstrated that we can deliver high quality sizable graphene orders quickly and are confident of securing further significant orders in the coming months," he added.

Recent updates see the Sir Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials, a £235 million plan to create a world-leading center for advanced materials research and commercialization, as set to be given the green light. The University of Manchester's intention is to regenerate a 1.4-acre plot off Oxford Road, next to the new £61 million National Graphene Institute, and it was reported that it is set to go before Manchester City Council's planning committee on Thursday, 9 February 2017.

The Sir Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials is envisaged as an international flagship project encompassing nine key areas of materials research, including graphene, and focusing on the themes of energy, engineering, functional and soft materials. The building would feature 172,233 sq ft of educational floorspace and will be supported by satellite centers comprising the universities of Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool, Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial College London. It is meant to accommodate around 550 scientists and play a prominent role within the university campus.