A team of scientists from the Center for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET) and Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) in India has reportedly managed to extract graphene from wild flowers (bougainvillea vines).

According to the scientists at C-MET and SPPU, these flowers, when dried and chemically treated, can be used to extract graphene. The team has fabricated supercapacitors using the produced graphene, and is now undertaking final trials of their performance. The experiment involved programmed heating of the dried petals, at temperatures ranging from 250 degrees Celsius to 1,000 degrees Celcius.

Exeter researchers have recently reported a new method to use graphene to produce photodetectors, which they feel could revolutionize the manufacturing of vital safety equipment, such as radiation and smoke detection units.

The Exeter team has created a new type of photodector that is said to be able to sense light around 4500 times better than traditional graphene sensors. This could possibly be implemented to create sensoring and imaging equipment that is more stable in harsh conditions, as well as been smaller and most cost-effective. The team stated that In this work we demonstrate that dressing the structure of graphene with molecules can transform the optical and electrical response of this wonder material and enable unprecedented applications.

Researchers at Swinburne University are progressing towards producing commercially viable, chemical-free, long-lasting, safe energy devices. The team is developing the Bolt Electricity Storage Technology (BEST) a graphene oxide-based supercapacitor offering high performance and low-cost energy storage.

The team explains that this technology is environmentally friendly, and a patent was recently filed on it. It is reportedly on the brink of becoming a commercial prototype. Also stated was that investment in the technology's development will soon be under way through Graphene Solutions, a joint venture between graphite miner First Graphite Resources (FGR) and Australia-based electronics company Kremford.

Zenyatta Ventures has announced a program for a scaled-up production method of its graphite to graphene oxide for applications like water treatment, sensors, supercapacitors and Li‐ion batteries. The program is receiving grant funding from the Ontario Centres for Excellence (OCE) to allow a team of scientists at Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada to carry out this research.

The OCE funding helps established Ontario‐based companies develop, implement and commercialize technical innovations by supporting partnerships with publicly‐funded post‐secondary institutions. The focus of the research work will be on scaling up production methods for Zenyatta’s graphite to GO, a first critical step towards commercialization of the technology. The OCE VIP II $100,000 grant will be administered over two years and Zenyatta will be contributing $50,000 in cash and $60,000 in‐kind support to the project.

A few days ago Canada-based Group NanoXplore announced that it is will merge with Graniz Modal to become a public company that trades in the Canadian stock exchange. NanoXPlore's CEO and President, Dr. Soroush Nazarpour, was kind enough to answer a few questions we had regarding this IPO and NanoXplore's business.

Q: Group NanoXplore is set to become a public company soon, following the merger with Graniz Modal. Can you detail the effect this will have on NanoXplore?

Researchers at the University of Central Florida, the University of Texas at Dallas and other collaborators have designed a graphene-based transistor which could be used to create an all-carbon spin logic design with the potential to someday lead to computers that are a thousand times faster and use a hundredth of the power.

The team found that by applying a magnetic field to a graphene ribbon, it is possible to change the resistance of current flowing through it. For this device, the magnetic field is controlled by increasing or decreasing the current through adjacent carbon nanotubes. Increasing or decreasing the strength of the magnetic field would also increase or decrease the flow of current through this new kind of transistor, much like a valve controlling the flow of water through a pipe.

Graphene 3D Lab has announced the launch of a new graphene-enhanced 3D printing filament - the Graphene-HIPS. It is said to be a distinctly engineered and innovative semi-flexible FDM 3D Printing material reinforced with graphene and designed for high performance 3D printing.

This FDM material reportedly exhibits excellent interlayer adhesion, toughness and superb impact resistance. These properties provide an excellent mechanical and structural performance for 3D printed objects made from this material. It is well suited for printing precise functional components for engineering applications. Graphene-HIPS is both temperature and weather resistant, which makes it an ideal material for outdoor projects.

Henrik Fisker, initiator of a project to start an electric car company relying on a long-range battery that uses graphene, recently stated that the company's upcoming electric luxury sedan will use lithium-ion batteries to power the car rather than the graphene battery technology currently under development for future models.

EMotion is slated to officially debut on August 17, 2017 with a tentative release in 2019. Pricing starts at $129,900, placing it in the same range as Tesla Model S. It will be interesting to see at what point, if at all, graphene-based batteries will be used in these cars.

Researchers affiliated with UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) in Korea have engineered a new type of carbon nanomaterials, reportedly capable of changing shapes and colors depending on the type of solvents used. Such materials have attracted much attention thanks to their unique optical properties and structures.

The research team has presented a unique design and synthesis of hybrid carbon nanosheets (CNSs), which show a strong solvatochromic behavior (the ability of a chemical to change color due to a change in solvent polarity) with wide color tunability ranging from blue to orange and even to white in various solvents. This unique hybrid CNS features clusters of carbon nanorings on the surface of graphene-oxide (GO) nanosheets as the product of the hydrothermal reaction of small molecular precursors in the presence of GO nanosheets. Moreover, under UV and visible-light excitation, the hybrid CNS exhibits tunable emission spanning the wide range of colors in a series of solvents with different polarities.

Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have reported that using graphene film managed to drastically enhance the quality of electron microscopy images.

Electron microscopes rely on an electron beam (rather than light) to illuminate the target sample. The electron beam hits the sample, and the resulting scattering of the electrons allowing scientists to build an accurate image of the target. This newly developed, unique microscope does not even rely on optical lenses any longer, instead using a detector to reveal which electrons hit the tiny virus samples and reconstructing the image through a computer algorithm. Moreover, while conventional electron microscopes require high-energy electrons, this microscope focuses on low-energy electrons which can potentially be much more efficient at imaging viruses if the associated technical issues can be overcome.