April 2023

It was recently reported that Skeleton Technologies and the Canadian automotive supplier Martinrea International are cooperating to equip refuse collection vehicles for use in Paris and New York with Skeleton’s ‘SuperBattery’ technology.

Martinrea International develops and produces electric vehicle technologies for heavy-duty commercial vehicles through its subsidiary Effenco. The aim of the agreement with the Estonia-based Skeleton is to electrify fleets of refuse collection vehicles in Europe and North America, starting in New York City and Paris, and later to make the solution developed by both companies available worldwide. In autumn 2022, Shell had already become known as the first major customer for the graphene battery solution. Shell wants to use it to create electrification solutions for mining sites.

Haydale recently announced an extension of its cooperation with Viritech, a developer of high-performance hydrogen powertrain solutions for the automotive industry. The two companies will work together on solutions for hydrogen pressure vessels, initially focusing on commercial vehicles.

In focusing on Type V, linerless pressure vessels, Viritech and Haydale are looking to develop 'the world’s most efficient vehicle storage system for gaseous hydrogen'. This technology could have wide application, including to the automotive, aerospace, and marine industries, with immediate application in the emerging market for fuel cell vans.

Researchers at the University of Georgia have developed a new graphene-enhanced foam material that could significantly reduce health care-related infections caused by implanted medical devices, as well as drastically improve cleanup efforts following environmental disasters, such as oil spills.

The 3D foam is water repellent and exhibits antimicrobial and oil-water separation properties. Its versatility and relatively inexpensive production costs could make it a valuable resource for clinicians and those specializing in environmental remediation.

Here are some recent and popular graphene industry updates that you may find of interest:

• Researchers design breakthrough graphene-based cardiac implant
• Researchers demonstrate graphene-based 2D magnetic device at room temperature
• Stolt Tankers and GI&T to apply graphene-based marine coating on 25 ships
• GIM signs $1 billion deal to tackle global sustainability challenges
• Researchers develop a sprayable graphene biosensing platform for rapid chemical sensing
• Researchers develop graphene/MoS2 micro-electrochemical capacitors for ultra-high storage
• Umbro launches graphene-enhanced ProTraining Elite range
• Paragraf acquired new manufacturing facility to boost production capabilities
• GGG's Honeycomb Battery merges with a $900 million SPAC company
• Universal Matter acquires Applied Graphene Materials' assets for $1.3 million
• The Graphene Flagship's chief, Prof. Jari Kinaret, shares his views on the post-Flagship future
• Graphenea reports financial figures for 2022, with 34% growth rate
• Skeleton Technologies launches its graphene SuperBattery and unveils Shell as partner
• William Blythe expands its graphene oxide capacity to 50 tonnes as demand increases
• LG launches graphene-enhanced earbuds
• Haydale to lead project for high barrier monolayer films for food packaging
• NeoGraf Solutions inaugurates its 750-ton graphene production facility
• WearGraphene's graphene-enhanced jacket - a hands-on review

Today we published a new edition of our Graphene Batteries Market Report, with all the latest information. The batteries market is extremely active, as demand from EVs and mobile applications increases research and development efforts, and graphene is seen as a potential material to increase capacity, decrease charging times and improve other performance metrics. Indeed the new edition contains over 10 new updates, with recent achievements and projects.

Reading this report, you'll learn all about:

• The advantages of using graphene in batteries
• The different ways graphene can be used in batteries
• Various types of graphene materials
• What's on the market today

The report package also provides:

• A list of all graphene companies involved with batteries
• Detailed specifications of graphene-enhanced anode materials
• Personal contact details into most graphene developers
• Free updates for a year

This Graphene Batteries market report provides a great introduction to graphene materials used in the batteries market, and covers everything you need to know about graphene in this niche. This is a great guide for anyone involved with the battery market, nanomaterials, electric vehicles and mobile devices.

German specialty chemicals company, Evonik, has invested (through its venture capital unit, Evonik Venture Capital (EVC)) in Chinese battery specialist SuperC. The Chinese company develops and produces graphene materials that improve the range, robustness, charging speed, and service life of lithium-ion batteries, aiming to solve key limitations of electric vehicles and accelerate the shift to climate-friendly mobility.

"By investing in SuperC, we are supporting a cutting-edge technology with a promising future. High-performance batteries are a crucial factor in accelerating the electrification of road transport and permanently reducing CO₂ emissions," says Bernhard Mohr, head of Evonik's venture capital unit. The investment was made by the Sustainability Tech Fund launched in 2022, which has a total investment volume of €150 million. The Group is thus also strengthening its sustainability goals by investing in an innovative technology and business model. The focus of the fund is on new technologies to reduce emissions as well as innovations that complement Evonik's Next Generation Solutions.

Graphene conducts electricity well – too well, in fact, to be useful in microelectronic technology. But by sandwiching graphene between two layers of boron nitride, which also has a hexagonal pattern, a moiré pattern results. The presence of this pattern is accompanied by dramatic changes in the properties of the graphene, essentially turning what would normally be a conducting material into one with (semiconductor-like) properties that are more amenable to use in advanced microelectronics. But in order to harness this potential for industrial use, there is first a need to better understand the dynamics. 

Researchers from University at Buffalo, Japan's National Institute for Materials Science and Chiba University, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Thailand's King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang and Korea's Sungkyunkwan University have chosen a strategy of rapid electrical pulsing to drive carriers in graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) heterostructures deep into the dissipative limit of strong electron-phonon coupling. By using electrical gating to move the chemical potential through the “Moiré bands”, they show a cyclical evolution between metallic and semiconducting states. The team's results demonstrate how a treatment of the dynamics of both hot carriers and hot phonons is essential to understanding the properties of functional graphene superlattices. 

France-based start-up Carbon Waters, specializing in the development and production of lines of high-performance industrial additives, has announced it has raised 2 million euros to industrialize its graphene-based high-performance additives production process. Carbon Waters will be ramping up its industrial production with a new pilot factory.

Carbon Waters’ unique dispersed graphene production process is at the heart of its innovation. The process allows the company to provide industrialists with “ready to use” product lines. Four years of R&D and €3 million of investment in the process have already produced two patents, with a third one on the way.

The Chinese Graphene Industry Association (CGIA) was established in 2013, to help promote the graphene industry in China, and has grown to over 150 members today. Recently we talked with Minyang Lu, Deputy Secretary-General of the CGIA. Major in charge of international cooperation, some domestic projects cooperation and organizing of the GRAPCHINA conference.

Q: Hello Minyang. The CGIA has grown to be the leading graphene trade organization in China, with over 150 members. Can you describe the CGIA's main activities and work?

China Innovation Alliance of the Graphene Industry – CGIA - was established on 13th of July 2013 in Beijing. It is a consortium of industrialized enterprises, academic institutions, and research organizations that are devoted to the research and development of graphene and graphene based products. The CGIA was established in order fulfill the needs of its members and their common interests, improve industrial technology innovation, and assist with legal contracts.

Australia-based First Graphene (FGR) will be kicking off one of the world’s largest graphene-enhanced green cement trials, supported by the UK Government’s £66 million Transforming Foundation Industries (TFI) program. FGR is leading the consortium running the trial, which also involves Breedon Cement, Morgan Sindall and the University of Manchester.

Receiving significant funding from Innovate UK through a £190,034 grant, graphene will be added to the cement production line using a range of additions methods with minimal changes to the existing plant. A key aim of the trial is to find a simple, low-cost method of introducing graphene to
industrial scale cement production processes.