September 2019

Researchers from Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University have found out the structures in nanomaterials made of ceramic and graphene plates, in which cracks appear most frequently. The suggested model may help in the creation of crack-resistant materials.

Many experimental studies of graphene-enhanced composites have shown that their mechanic characteristics are set by the graphene proportion in the composition and by the size of graphene plates allocated in the ceramic matrix. For example, in case of low graphene concentration high crack resistance was achieved with the help of long plates. However, in one of the recent experiments of synthesis of materials from alumina ceramics and graphene the opposite effect was shown: as the plates were bigger, the crack resistance was weaker. The researches from St. Petersburg have developed a theoretical model that explains this paradox.

The Tata group is a global enterprise, headquartered in India, comprising over 100 independent operating companies. Tata Steel, the flagship company of the Tata group, is a Fortune 500 Company with immense global reach. TV Narendran, Managing Director of Tata Steel, provided updates on the Company's graphene R&D business.

Tata Steel is working with graphene as part of its plan of focusing on developing advanced material to protect its margin and bottom line. Its Graphene Development Center has recently produced corrosion-resistant graphene paint and supplied graphene powder to renowned tyre companies. It has also demonstrated the potential of graphene inks, which are used in the printing of train tickets, plane boarding passes, and RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags.

XG Sciences has announced commercial adoption of its products for use in engine oil. HELLA, an innovative family-owned company serving the automotive and industrial markets with revenue of €7 Billion in the fiscal year 2018/2019, completed a successful launch of a new line of engine oil additives incorporating XG Sciences' graphene nanoplatelets to improve performance.

HELLA’s engine oil additive, enhanced with graphene from XG Sciences, is specially formulated to reduce wear and friction in internal combustion engines delivering a range of benefits including extended engine life, reduced engine vibration, improved power output, 50% reduction in engine wear, improved fuel economy and enhanced ride comfort.

A new study from Queen Mary University of London finds that graphene is in fact a 3D material, as well as a 2D material. This Realization is said to be important for understanding its mechanical properties and for developing novel graphene-based devices.

In this study, the researchers asked two fundamental questions: to what extent is graphene graphite, and what is the true thickness of graphene? To their surprise, they found that 2D graphene, which is a flat single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb structure, has many of the same mechanical properties as 3D graphite, which is a naturally occurring form of carbon made up from a very weak stack of many layers of graphene. They show that graphene shares a similar resistance to compression as graphite and that it is significantly thicker than is widely believed.

Jewel Sanitary Napkins (JSN), a U.S-based company, launched its graphene-enhanced sanitary napkins on June 1^st, 2019. In the several months since then (at the time of writing this article), the Company reportedly made over $600,000 from selling the $6 product.

The sanitary napkins come in four variations: very light panty liners, moderate flow sanitary napkins, heavy flow sanitary napkins and super heavy flow sanitary napkins. The graphene, said by the company to be a proprietary blend, is found in a single strip placed in the center of the pad (pad design can be viewed at jewelpads.com).

First Graphene has signed an exclusive agreement with the UK’s University of Manchester, with the duo to collaborate on the development of energy storage materials including a new class of high-performance capacitors made from a graphene-hybrid.

This latest agreement expands on the duo’s formerly-established collaboration, with both organizations to make metal oxide decorated graphene materials, which have very high gravimetric capacitance of up to 500 Farads/g. Manchester University’s previous research has revealed high capacitance materials up to 500 Farads/g are possible and outperform existing materials.

BioMed X has announced the completion of its first research collaboration project with Roche Diagnostics in the field of nanomaterial-based biosensors for near patient testing. BioMed X successfully achieved the proof of principle for a new sensor platform allowing the analysis of several different parameters from blood samples with one single device.

The project was initiated in 2015 as a call for application using BioMed X’s proprietary crowdsourcing platform for project proposals. As a result of an international innovation challenge, a team of early-career researchers from five different countries worked in Germany on the design of a field effect transistor-based multimodal sensing platform for proteins, blood gases and electrolytes, metabolites and enzymes with a single-use disposable material for point-of-care diagnostics.

Physicists from the University of Groningen constructed a two-dimensional spin transistor, in which spin currents were generated by an electric current through graphene. A monolayer of a transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) was placed on top of the graphene to induce charge-to-spin conversion in the graphene.

Spintronics is an attractive alternative way of creating low-power electronic devices. It is not based on a charge current but rather on a current of electron spins. Spin is a quantum mechanical property of an electron, a magnetic moment that could be used to transfer or store information.

Innovative graphene-based retinal implants to restore vision, part of the project Adaptive Retinal Implant Technology for Vision Restoration (i-VISION), have been awarded a million euro la Caixa Health Research Grant.

The i-VISION project is led by the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) in Barcelona, a BIST center. The work is the follow-up of the BIST Ignite THEIA project, in which the ICN2, IFAE, ICFO and Barraquer Ophthalmological Center began their research into this new generation of retinal prostheses. THEIA was awarded funding through two successive BIST Ignite grants, in 2016 and in 2017.

A research team jointly led by University of Warwick and EMPA has tackled a challenging issue of stability and reproducibility in working with graphene, that meant that graphene-based junctions were either mechanically stable or electrically stable but not both at the same time.

Credit: University of Warwick

Graphene and graphene like molecules are attractive choices for electronic components in molecular devices, but have proven very challenging to use in large scale production of molecular devices that will work and be robust at room temperatures. The joint research team from the University of Warwick, EMPA and Lancaster and Bern Universities has reached both electrical and mechanical stability in graphene-based junctions.