Researchers from the Korea-based ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) have used graphene transparent electrodes to create an OLED display, 370mm x 470mm in size.

The ETRI team designed a process that can pattern a graphene-made transparent electrode in accurate size on a glass substrate. The researchers replaced indium tin oxide used for current commercial applications, that is a rare metal known for being brittle.

Researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) have proposed a high-efficiency energy harvesting device based on graphene electrodes and 2D transition metal dichalcogenide materials.

Inspired by the concept of multilayer thermionic devices, the team designed a solid-state thermionic device using van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure sandwiched between two graphene electrodes, to achieve high energy conversion efficiency in the temperature range of 400 to 500 K. The technology enables performance (8% above) of devices comparable to or even better than state-of-art thermoelectric devices around room temperature. This novel design may boost interest in thermionic emission-based energy conversion and pave the way towards another alternative to solutions to low-grade waste heat harvesting.

Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China have shown that graphene-wrapped sponges can provide an effective and fast way to absorb spilled crude oil when heated with an applied electric current.

The team wrapped porous material with a thin graphene layer, put the coated sponge in water mixed with crude oil, and applied an electric current to the graphene to warm it up. The process reduces the viscosity of crude oil, thus speeding up the oil-absorption time, according to reports.

Graphene Flagship researchers from AMBER at Trinity College Dublin, in collaboration with scientists from TU Delft, Netherlands, have fabricated printed transistors consisting entirely of layered materials. The team's findings are said to have the potential to cheaply print a range of electronic devices from solar cells to LEDs and more.

The team used standard printing techniques to combine graphene flakes as the electrodes with other layered materials, tungsten diselenide and boron nitride as the channel and separator to form an all-printed, all-layered materials, working transistor.

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have used mango leaves to synthesize fluorescent graphene quantum dots, and integrated those into probes for bioimaging and intracellular temperature sensing.

The unique quantum dots are reportedly biocompatible, have excellent photostability and show no cellular toxicity. To make them, the team cut mango leaves and froze them using liquid nitrogen. The frozen leaves were crushed into powder and dipped in alcohol. The extract was centrifuged and the supernatant evaporated in an evaporator and then heated in a microwave for five minutes to get a fine powder.

Prof. James Tour's research lab in Rice University is one of the leading graphene research groups in the world, with several key technologies first discovered and developed there. Professor Tour is involved with several application areas - from de-icing coating to energy storage and quantum dots production. Prof. Tour was kind enough to share his time and update us on the latest research and commercialization efforts at his lab.

The Tour group is now commercializing two of its key technologies. First up is the laser-induced graphene (or LiG), which was reported first in 2014. This is a process in which graphene is formed on a flexible polyimide film using a room-temperature laser-based process. It is possible to pattern this graphene to create devices and as it is formed on a flexible film this easily enables flexible electronics applications.

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Researchers at the Germany-based Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research have developed a structurally colored coating based on graphene flakes, that changes color depending on deformation of the colored surface. Inspired by natural iridescence in fish skin, this coating could provide a simple way to warn of hidden damage in buildings, bridges and other structures.

The team made the coating in an initial red, but when deformed, it appears yellow, and when cracked at the micrometer scale, green. This color-changing ability comes from a careful alignment of the graphene flakes in semi-transparent, parallel layers, coating a glass fibre. Under stress, the layers compress and flatten, changing the interference and color of reflected light. In fact, by overlapping graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) with ordered and disordered features using a special deposition approach, unique fish scale like structures are achieved. Variable structural coloration is observed through the mechanical tuning of fine parallel multilayers.

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A team at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and North Carolina State University has found a way to grow narrow ribbons of graphene without the use of metal substrates.

Narrow graphene ribbons can perform as a semiconductor if the ribbons are made with a specific edge shape, but to grow graphene nanoribbons with controlled width and edge structure from polymer precursors, is not a simple task. Previous researchers had used a metal substrate to catalyse a chemical reaction, but the metal substrate suppresses useful edge states and shrinks the desired band gap. The team in this work managed to grow graphene nanoribbons without a metal substrate. Instead, they injected charge carriers that promote a chemical reaction that converts a polymer precursor into a graphene nanoribbon.