The European Union Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) has published a study that has systematically reviewed and critically assessed the potential health and environmental effects of graphene, graphene oxide, and other two-dimensional (2D) materials, based on existing public information of the last ten years.

It was explained that graphene’s rising popularity and broad application potential raise the need for more efforts in researching its safety aspects. The current study identified potential risks in specific scenarios, for example for surface water and soil located near point sources (such as production sites).

Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Princeton University recently set out to automate the beam of an electron microscope in order to drill holes in graphene, but found that the drilled holes closed up. They expected the heat to make atoms easier to remove, but they saw the opposite effect.

"Graphene appeared impervious to the electron beam," said Ondrej Dyck, who co-led the study with Stephen Jesse at ORNL's Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences. Jesse added, "It heals locally, like the (fictitious) liquid-metal T-1000 in the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day."

Researchers from the University of Basel and Tel Aviv University have reported insights relating to friction in graphene. If graphene is applied to a platinum surface, it has a significant impact on the measurable friction forces. The team found that in this instance, the friction depends on the speed at which the tip of an atomic force microscope is moved across the surface.

This finding is surprising because friction does not depend on speed according to Coulomb's law, which applies in the macro world.

Researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Pusan National University and CNRS have developed an artificial muscle that is 17 times more powerful than that of humans. The muscle made of graphene-liquid crystal elastomer-based fiber bundles will reportedly be commercialized through a Korean company.

 
The main factor that hinders the development of high-performance artificial muscles is that scientists are not able to mechanically select a certain part of the artificial muscle to contract and expand. Large and bulky artificial muscles are not accurate enough.

UK-based PlanarTECH offers R&D and production-scale equipment and services for all classes of emerging 2D materials and carbon-based materials such as CNTs and CVD diamonds. In 2020 planarTECH launched a successful equity crowdfunding campaign as it aims to expand its business and enter new markets such as industrial CVD graphene production systems and material production.

We have recently talked to the company's CEO, J. Patrick Frantz, who gives us the latest business and technology updates from PlanarTECH.

Q: Can you update us on your latest business activities, with a focus on graphene?

We had a very difficult time during the pandemic, as many companies did. From July 2020 through June 2021 we shipped just one CVD system. However, we started to see a resumption of customer activity towards the end of 2021 as labs reopened and people around the world got back to work. For 2022, we’re seeing a complete recovery and are on our way to the best year we’ve ever had in terms of sales.

G6 Materials has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Graphene Laboratories (GLI), has entered into a Strategic Partnership Agreement with Singapore-based MADE Advance Materials. The collaboration between GLI and MADE will be focused on production collaboration and the potential joint development of intellectual property.

MADE is a company that aims to introduce a new way of development in the next generation of graphene/fiber-reinforced composite materials. MADE works within the automotive, marine, and lifestyle industries.

Versarien has announced that it has raised £1.85 million (around USD$2,259,000) in new share capital.

Yesterday, Versarien provided an update on its £5 million graphene project G-SCALE (Graphene, Seat, Concrete, Arch, Leisure, Elastomer). The project aims to produce sufficient quantities of graphene to enable commercialization of graphene-enhanced products in these five priority application areas.

On 1 July 2020, Versarien announced that the UK Government, via Innovate UK, had granted a £5 million loan to the Company, for a project named G-SCALE, an acronym for Graphene, Seat, Concrete, Arch, Leisure, Elastomer. The award was to facilitate the production of sufficient quantities of graphene to enable commercialization of graphene-enhanced products in these five priority application areas.

Recently, Versarien has provided a summary of G-SCALE progress for each of the relevant segments. 

Researchers from India's SRM Institute of Science and Technology have reported on a natural, environmentally friendly and sustainable surfactant for exfoliating graphene in water.

Aqueous graphene dispersions hold potential for many applications such as printed and paper electronics and polymer composites, but the water’s surface energy tends to be too high to stabilize them. However, surfactants provide adequate repulsive potential against restacking of exfoliated nanosheets in colloidal dispersions to overcome the van der Waal’s attractive forces. The major problem with reported and commercial surfactant resources is their inability to produce micrometer-sized graphene with few defects at high yield with using a minimal amount of economical and sustainable surfactants. 

Directa Plus recently said it expects its revenue to rise in 2022 due to a growing proportion of repeat customer business. Directa Plus expects full-year revenue for 2022 to now be at least €10.0 million, up 16% from €8.6 million in 2021.

Directa Plus said it will enter 2023 with a ‘record’ order book of €8.5 million, having secured a number of new customers and contracts during the period across all key verticals and markets.