Australia-based Talga Resources and its UK subsidiary Talga Technologies recently announced collaboration agreements to commence three UK Government Faraday Challenge battery programs. The execution of formal agreements follows the awarding of the grants under Faraday, a £246 million UK Government commitment over the next four years into battery development for automotive electrification. The initiative will encompass cell manufacture, modules, battery pack design/assembly and vehicle applications, and follows an undertaking by the UK Government to place a ban on new petrol and diesel engines by 2040.

Talga’s participation in the funding program of Innovate UK, the government development body, follows successful tests by Talga of its natural carbon materials and technologies in Li-ion batteries. Talga, together with its consortia partners, secured significant funding support under the ‘Innovation’ aspect of Faraday. Talga will receive a 70% rebate against its eligible costs, including salaries, consumables, equipment and contractor expenses. Talga’s participation in the programs range from 12-24 months and development activities will be led from Talga Technologies Limited in Cambridge UK, utilizing the Company's Swedish high grade graphite and functionalized graphene processed at Talga’s test facility in Germany.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have developed a solution to a problem that has been setting back commercialization of a new kind of batteries. Lithium-metal batteries can take up to 10 times more charge than conventional lithium-ion batteries, but have not yet been commercialized due to the fact that lithium is deposited unevenly on the electrodes while charging and discharging. This buildup cuts the lives of these batteries too short to make them viable, and more importantly can cause the batteries to short-circuit and catch fire.

The team has delivered a potential solution to this problem in the form of a graphene-oxide-coated ‘nanosheet’ that, when placed in between the two electrodes of a lithium-metal battery, prevents uneven plating of lithium and allows the battery to safely function for hundreds of chargedischarge cycles.

Scientists from the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics in China have developed a 'smart' wallpaper based on highly flexible fire-resistant inorganic paper embedded with ultralong hydroxyapatite nanowires that serve as the substrate and graphene oxide as the thermosensitive sensor.

The authors explain: "After the paper-making process, hydroxyapatite nanowires and glass fibers are assembled into a well-defined multilayered structure spontaneously, which may be explained by the mechanical equilibrium between physical and chemical forces. The nacre-like multilayered structure is regarded as an effective strategy to balance the strength and toughness".

Directa Plus has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Sartec to jointly develop a commercial-scale industrial system (Pilot Plant), based on the Company’s Grafysorber product, for treating oil-contaminated produced water in the oil & gas industry. Sartec is a provider of industrial engineering to the oil, energy and environment sectors and part of the Saras Group, the Italy-listed company with a current market capitalization of approximately €1.6 billion.

The Agreement follows initial joint research over the last eight months (proof-of-concept phase) during which extensive tests on the Company’s Grafysorber product, as well as the effectiveness of the continuous process equipment, were successfully carried out. In Q2-2018, Sartec will commence building an industrial Pilot Plant, with Directa Plus providing support and expertise regarding Grafysorber.

Two novel 2D materials, graphene and hexagonal boron nitride, and the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope these were the ingredients used to create a novel kind of a so-called quantum dot. These extremely small nanostructures allow delicate control of individual electrons by fine-tuning their energy levels directly. Such devices can be key for modern quantum technologies.

The theoretical simulations for the new technology were performed at TU Wien. The experiment involved RWTH Aachen and the team around Nobel-prize laureates Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov from Manchester who prepared the samples.

The following is a sponsored post by IDTechEx

An estimated 2,500 people will attend Printed Electronics Europe, part of the world’s largest series of events on printed, flexible and hybrid electronics, which will be held on 11-12 April at the Estrel Convention Center in Berlin.

The unique focus of the event is to speed up the adoption of printed electronics by bringing together end users with suppliers across the value chain. Presentations from end users will cover their progress and use cases involving the technology, with speakers from a variety of global organizations representing different industry verticals including Beko, Johnson & Johnson, Cartamundi, Saati, Panasonic, Huawei, GE Healthcare and many more.

Researchers at Zhejiang University in China have designed a new type of aerogels, made of graphene and carbon nanotubes, that can be reversibly stretched to more than three times their original length, displaying elasticity similar to that of a rubber band. This stretchability, in addition to aerogels' existing properties like ultralow density, light weight, high porosity, and high conductivity, may lead to exciting new applications.

The scientists designed carbon aerogels consisting of both graphene and multi-walled carbon nanotubes assembled into four orders of hierarchical structures ranging from the nanometer to centimeter scale. To fabricate the material into aerogels, the researchers created an ink composed of graphene oxide and nanotubes, and then formed the aerogels via inkjet printing.

Graphite company Archer Exploration has redefined its existing relationship with the University of Adelaide, by shifting developmental focus away from industrial graphite applications to more consumer-focused graphene-based products.

The collaboration will aim to develop and implement graphene and carbon-based materials for use in complex biosensing which can target applications in human health. Research will explore graphene-based materials for complex biosensing to generate patents with commercial applications and will combine AXE's graphite and graphene materials with the research and development capability of the university.

Graphene Nanochem announced that the company will remove its shares from London's AIM market on Monday next week, following its failure to appoint a new nominated adviser.

This means that starting from next week, Graphene Nanochem will return to being a private company. The company does, however, say that it aims to acquire modular construction company CG TekBuild, and following this acquisition it expects to return to the AIM via an IPO.

Sweden-based Graphmatech, which recently reported a breakthrough made at Uppsala University that "solves the practical implementation issues of graphene", has signed a contract with ABB, a leading engineering company that is focused on power, automation and robotics technologies. The joint project is related to graphene-based composites.

Graphmatech is a part of the InnoEnergy Highway - Europe’s leading business accelerator specializing in sustainable energy - as well as to the ABB innovation growth hub, SynerLeap and has received initial financing from Swedish Innovation Agency as well as the Swedish Energy Agency.