November 2021

UK-based Roadfill develops a technology that combines waste plastic with graphene that is used to repair roads, while cutting CO₂ emissions and creating a circular economy. According to the company's research, its products reduce bitumen (heated petroleum) usage by up to 14%, and last on average 7X longer, which can cut costs for public bodies and businesses by up to 30%. The products can be more weather and pothole resistant, and give greater surface friction, reducing tyre fatigue and braking distances.

Roadfill is now raising funds in a successful crowdfunding campaign. The campaigns ends today, and the company already raised over £550,000 from over 600 investors, well over its original £350,000 target. If you are interested, hop over to Seedrs to check the company out - as you can still invest in it today.

Recent research has shown that the incorporation of graphene-related materials improves the performance and stability of perovskite solar cells. Graphene is hydrophobic, which can enhance several properties of perovskite solar cells. Firstly, it can enhance stability and the passivation of electron traps at the perovskite’s crystalline domain interfaces. Graphene can also provide better energy level alignment, leading to more efficient devices.

In a recent study, Spain-based scientists used pristine graphene to improve the properties of MAPbI₃, a popular perovskite material. Pristine graphene was combined with the metal halide perovskite to form the active layer of the solar cells. By analyzing the resulting graphene/perovskite material, it was observed that an average efficiency value of 15% under high-stress conditions was achieved when the optimal amount of graphene was used.

Poland-based Advanced Graphene Products S.A. (AGP), a graphene flakes and sheet developer, announced that it will go public, with a listing on the NewConnect market, on November 29th.

AGP has an annual capacity of 100Kg for graphene flakes and 150 m² of large-area graphene sheets. The company is currently preparing to launch a pilot sale of a graphene-based filament for 3D printing.

NanoMalaysia (NMB), a company under the Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) set up to promote nanotechnology commercialization activities, has an ongoing collaboration with and UMORIE Graphene Technologies (UGT) that has recently yielded a working prototype of Malaysia's first graphene-based pouch cell battery to be used in electric vehicles (EV).

This full-cell lithium-ion battery enhanced with graphene will reportedly be a more efficient storage platform for clean and renewable energy source that will aim to revolutionize the EV industry. The battery's intellectual property (IP) is jointly developed by NMB, UGT and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

FLAG-ERA has announced the funding of 10 new projects on graphene and related materials, which will become partnering projects of the Graphene Flagship. The projects split between basic and applied research and innovation, covering areas from magnetic memories and photodetectors to novel batteries and neural inter-faces.

The FLAG-ERA initiative establishes links between the EU-funded FET Flagship projects and national and regional funding agencies in Member States. Through different strategies, FLAG-ERA fosters multi-disciplinary collaborations to expand the scope of the Graphene Flagship and the Human Brain Project. Among these was their latest Joint Transnational Call (JTC) 2021, announced earlier this year. JTC 2021 has resolved funding for the 10 projects, seven of which involve partners from widening countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey.

Versarien has announced a commercial collaboration agreement with DKH Retail Limited, the worldwide wholesale distribution subsidiary of global fashion brand Superdry, to produce graphene-enhanced clothes.

Through the partnership, Superdry will develop graphene-enhanced garments, using Versarien's GRAPHENE-WEAR^TM technology, aiming to utilize graphene's thermal and moisture management properties into its garments.

Zentek (formerly called Zen Graphene Solutions) has announced that it has entered into an agreement to raise CAD$20 million (around USD$15,928,000).

In addition, the Company intends to complete a concurrent non-brokered private placement for gross proceeds of approximately CAD$12.5 million (around USD$9,954,000).

An international research team, led by Germany's Kiel University (CAU) and including scientists from the University of Southern Denmark, Technische Universität Dresden, University of Trento, Sixonia Tech and Queen Mary University of London, has used aero-graphene to develop a new method for the generation of controllable electrical explosions. "Aerographene" consists of a finely-structured tubular network based on graphene with numerous cavities. This makes it extremely stable, conductive and almost as lightweight as air.

The research team has now taken a major step toward practical applications. They have succeeded in repeatedly heating and cooling aerographene and the air contained inside it to very high temperatures in an extremely short period of time. This enables extremely powerful pumps, compressed air applications or sterilizing air filters in miniature.

Graphene has a great potential in the construction industry, to increase the performance of materials and structures, to reduce costs and to reduce the environmental footprint of one of the world's most polluting industries.

After years of R&D, it seems as if graphene is finally get ready for commercial adoption on the market. Here's a short interview we did with James Baker, the CEO at Graphene@Manchester who's behind much of the progress we've seen recently.

After years of promises and early research and development efforts, we are finally seeing some initial impact of graphene in a wide range of applications. The graphene market and industry is set for an excellent year in 2022, as the material is finally coming of age. If you are looking to promote your company's products and services for the graphene market, increase awareness of your technology, and generate new leads - Graphene-Info is the perfect choice!

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