Following a $7.8 Million Series A-1 financing announced in March 2019, Cardea, (formerly called Nanomedical Diagnostics), a U.S-based manufacturer of a biology-enabled transistor technology made from graphene-based biosensors, now announced another $7.5 Million raised in the Series A2 Financing.

The capital will help accelerate the growth and development of the Company’s proprietary Tech+Bio Infrastructure and chipsets that enable Cardea’s Innovation Partners to bring Powered by Cardea" products to market with features and competitive advantages Cardea defines as "never seen before".

Researchers from Australia's Monash University, U.S Naval Research Laboratory, University of Maryland and IMDEA Nanociencia in Spain have confirmed what actually happens to calcium atoms that are added to graphene in order to create a superconductor: surprisingly, the calcium goes underneath both the upper graphene sheet and a lower ‘buffer’ sheet, ‘floating’ the graphene on a bed of calcium atoms.

Superconducting calcium-injected graphene holds great promise for energy-efficient electronics and transparent electronics.

LIGC Application, an Israeli maker of Laser-Induced Graphene filters (LIG), recently announced raising $3 Million in Series A funding. Wuhan-based public listed company Hubei Forbon Technology made the investment.

The company intends to use the funds to scale and manufacture its filters.

Haydale has announced the signing of contracts for the provision of services for the collaborative development of graphene and nano material enhanced products for use in Dowty Propellers’ products. Haydale will assist Dowty in examining the feasibility and development of various material technologies, pertinent to Dowty’s future product development, involving the incorporation of graphene and other nano materials.

Haydale will work with Dowty to develop erosion-resistant coatings with the addition of Haydale’s proprietary Silicone Carbide (SiC) Microfibers. Further development work is ongoing to establish the feasibility of potential industry-changing technology for the turboprop sector. In addition to these topics, Haydale will develop graphene-enhanced functional inks for strain sensing using its surface engineered HDPlas graphene nanomaterials.

The potential for improved performance and life cycle, fast charging and enhanced safety have proven to be enough of an incentive to inspire active study into graphene-based batteries, with many researchers and companies working globally to develop this energy Holy Grail.

Graphene-enhanced batteries seem to be one of those technologies that holds great promise and appeal, but always remains somewhat unattainable. Some batteries have been commercialized in which graphene was used to perform secondary functions - such as to enhance the casing flexibility or the heat dissipation abilities. These batteries have been launched in some markets - but this is not the breakthrough everybody is waiting for. Some claims have been made regarding actual graphene batteries. Some of these have been found to be outright scams while others have yet to form an actual presence on the market. It is also important to know that not all graphene-enhanced batteries actually use graphene - some use graphene derivatives or multi-layer graphene which is actual graphite.

In spite of all the above, advances are being made and milestones achieved, with some initial products entering the market and great amounts of funds invested into R&D. It is still our view that graphene holds great promise for the batteries of the future.

Chinese EV maker Guangzhou Automobile New Energy (GAC), which announced last May that it has developed a graphene-enhanced battery for EVs which will be available for mass production at the end of this year, recently set up a unit that specializes in graphene and has begun research and development of fast-charging technology for electric vehicles.

Guangzhou Juwan Technology Research has registered capital of CNY58.8 million (USD8.6 million), according to statements by the Guangzhou-based company. It specializes in new materials and technologies, graphene and carbon products manufacture, battery production, emerging energy tech R&D, software development and sales of graphene materials.

Researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland, Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Hungary and National Institute for Material Science in Japan have developed a new, super-small device that is capable of detecting minute magnetic fields.

A conventional SQUID (left) and the new SQUID (right). (University of Basel, Department of Physics)

The device, a new kind of superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), is just 10 nanometres high, or around a thousandth of the thickness of a human hair. It's made from two layers of graphene making it one of the smallest SQUIDs ever built separated by a very thin layer of boron nitride.

Graphenea recently announced that its graphene foundry service (GFAB), launched in 2019, will be getting an upgrade. Graphenea Foundry said that it will start a Multi-Project Wafer run service from January 2021, and it is currently speaking with customers interested in this first run.

Graphenea Foundry follows a pure-play foundry model, in which it manufactures graphene-based devices for its customers and third parties under request. Nevertheless, the factory also makes usable plug&play graphene devices from scratch, thus covering all aspects of device manufacturing. The staple product and the starting point for satisfying most customer needs is the GFET, the graphene field effect transistor. These readily-available devices are said to be ideal for early experiments and proof-of-concept measurements.

A research team from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has announced the production of graphene masks with a reported anti-bacterial efficiency of 80%, which can be enhanced to almost 100% with exposure to sunlight for around 10 minutes.

CityU's graphene-enhanced masks. Credit: City University of Hong Kong

Initial tests also showed very promising results in the deactivation of two species of coronaviruses. The graphene masks are reportedly easily produced at a low cost, and can help to resolve the problems of sourcing raw materials and disposing of non-biodegradable masks.

Haydale has announced that, following the announcement on March 2020 regarding its graphene nano-platelets having been incorporated into iCraft’s cosmetic face mask sheet, a contract is now in place for 1 metric tonne of graphene nano-platelets (GNP-02-STD) in the first year, 2 metric tonnes in the second year, and three metric tonnes in the third year. This is an exclusive agreement for the mask application within the APAC region, excluding Thailand.

Haydale has signed a worldwide exclusivity contract to supply functionalized graphene nano-platelets for use in these sheet masks that are face-shaped sheet fabrics which utilize the thermal and electrical conductivity of graphene to help the skin absorb its contents through bioelectric currents. In addition, Haydale said it has completed a GBP3.0 million equity raise.