Researchers at Lancaster University’s tech start-up Quantum Base are working on a graphene-based identity tag that can be scanned using a smartphone, to provide a possible solution to the fake goods problem that is causing worldwide financial damage on a grand scale.

The researchers, who are showcasing their work at the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition, have designed a tag that can be verified by the end user using a smartphone. While other authenticity identifiers exist, like holograms, security inks and chemical or physical markers, this new system relies on graphene to make it unique. The team explains that the 2D nature of graphene means that even the tiniest imperfections, caused by the smallest of changes in the structure of an atom, can be identified. It also makes replicating the tag hard for fraudsters, if not impossible.

Chinese researchers have reportedly developed a simple "one-step method" for fabricating micro-supercapacitors and demonstrated that the final devices exhibit a very good overall performance, including a high power density (1500 mW/cm³) as well as an energy density (11.6 mWh/cm³) that is at least twice as high as similar micro-supercapacitors.

An important step in fabricating these new micro-supercapacitor is integrating phosphorene nanosheets into the interlayer of graphene nanosheets, and the good performance is in large part due to the synergistic combination of these two materials. The different materials have complementary effects, with the phosphorene offering a high storage capacity and preventing the graphene sheets from unwanted stacking, while the graphene forms the main skeleton and offers a high-speed electron transport network.

U.S-based Alliance Rubber recently signed an agreement with University of Sussex to study how graphene could be used in rubber products. Under the agreement, Alliance Rubber will sponsor research work exclusively on graphene projects for three years.

Potential applications the company plans to investigate include a rubber band that fits around credit and debit cards with RFID chips and prevents hackers from remotely accessing information stored on the chips, a rubber band around produce that changes color when the produce reaches a set temperature or after a certain amount of time passes after harvest, and a rubber band that acts as a bar code on produce in grocery stores.

Rice University scientists have attached ruthenium atoms to graphene to create a durable catalyst for high-performance fuel cells. Most catalysts used to drive the oxygen reduction reaction that lets fuel cells turn chemical energy into electricity are made of platinum, which stands up to the acidic nature of the cell’s charge-carrying electrolyte. However, platinum is expensive, and replacements have long been searched for by researchers.

The ruthenium-graphene combination may pose a suitable replacement; In tests, its performance was said to easily match that of traditional platinum-based alloys and bested iron and nitrogen-doped graphene, another contender.