Graphite One, a mining company planning a complete domestic U.S. supply chain for advanced graphite materials, has announced that it has received a US$4.7 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Logistics Agency ("DLA") to develop a graphite and graphene-based foam fire suppressant as an alternative to incumbent PFAS fire-suppressant materials, as required by U.S. law.

"Graphite One is pleased to begin work on this Defense Logistics Agency project, which responds to the legally-mandated requirement to develop a new alternative to long-standing foam fire suppressants which are known to have toxic impacts on human health and the environment," said Anthony Huston, President and CEO of Graphite One. "This DLA contract underscores the importance of graphite for innovative technology applications beyond the renewable energy markets – an important part of Graphite One's advanced graphite materials strategy."

Black Swan Graphene has announced the results of a scoping study for its large scale Québec facility. Developed in collaboration with Toronto-based engineering firm Halyard, this Scoping Study marks a significant step forward for Black Swan's growth strategy.

The Scoping Study provides an initial evaluation, including processing plant specifications as well as conceptual mechanical, civil, structural, and electrical designs, for its proposed 40,000 square-foot first large-scale production facility, based on the same processing technology currently being used in the facility located in the United Kingdom. The annual production and self-sustaining ramp up of its industry-ready products have been established by taking into consideration customers and distributors' expected demand, as well as strategic partnerships, including the partnerships with Nationwide Engineering Research & Development ("NERD") and the Arup Group ("Arup"). 

Archer Materials has had its advanced graphene field effect transistor (“gFET”) chip design validated by a commercial foundry partner in the Netherlands with a whole four-inch wafer run.
 

The new advanced gFET device designs have been fabricated and the whole wafer run foundry process was reportedly successful. The electronic and spectroscopic characteristics of the gFET chips, and the foundry fabrication process yield, are said to be consistent with what Archer expected. The gFET chips are also compatible with Archer’s biochip system platform.

Researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) have developed a highly magnetic quantum computing material — 100 times more magnetic than pure iron — that functions at room temperature. The team introduced an aminoferrocene-based graphene system with room temperature superparamagnetic behavior in the long-range magnetic order.

Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize the world, allowing massive health and science computation problems to be solved exponentially faster than by classic computing. However, before this could happen, it is vital to overcome the current drawback of only operating in subzero temperatures. “In order to make quantum computers work, we cannot use them at room temperature,” said Ahmed El-Gendy, Ph.D., an associate professor of physics at The University of Texas at El Paso. “That means we will need to cool the computers and cool all the materials, which is very expensive.”

Versarien has reported that its Spanish business has secured funding for a new project, in a boost to the group’s turnaround strategy. The Company said its majority-owned subsidiary, Gnanomat, has been awarded a grant of around €415,000 (around USD$445,660) by a government body.

Gnanomat will use the money to help develop and commercialize a new line of conductive inks based on Versarien's nanomaterials, for use in the production of electronic goods.

Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) has announced it has developed graphene aluminum ion (G+AI) battery prototype pouch cells with a storage capacity of more than 500 milliampere hours (mAh) and a nominal voltage of about 2 volts.

GMG sees this as a significant development because it demonstrates how it has matured its battery electro-chemistry and assembly techniques to produce pouch cells with more than 10 layers of graphene-coated cathode and aluminum foil anode. The next step is for the company to optimize the assembly techniques of the pouch cell prototypes to achieve repeatable storage capacity of more than 500 mAh cells for the purpose of conducting a variety of standard testing conditions for comparison purposes.

BASF, a global battery materials producer, and Nanotech Energy, a developer of graphene-based energy storage products, have agreed to partner to significantly reduce the CO₂ footprint of Nanotech’s lithium-ion batteries for the North American market. The agreement aims to close the loop for lithium-ion batteries in North America, with BASF producing cathode active materials from recycled metals in Battle Creek, Michigan, for the usage in lithium-ion battery cells produced by Nanotech Energy. Feeding recycled metals into the production of new lithium-ion batteries can reportedly reduce the CO₂ impact of batteries by about 25% compared to the use of primary metals from mines.

Both companies will additionally partner with American Battery Technology Company (ABTC), a lithium-ion battery recycling company in Reno, Nevada, and TODA Advanced Materials Inc. (TODA) with decades of experience in manufacturing specialized pCAM (precursor for Cathode Active Material) and metal hydroxide material located in Ontario, Canada, to establish such a localized battery value chain for the North American consumer electronics and automotive industries. Along that chain, battery scrap and off-spec material from Nanotech’s pilot operation in Chico, California, as well as from its planned commercial facility will be recycled by ABTC. The battery-grade metals as recovered by ABTC – such as nickel, cobalt, manganese, and lithium – will be subsequently used by TODA and BASF to produce new precursors and cathode active materials, respectively. Nanotech will then use these materials again in its battery cell production – overall, a truly circular economy in North America.

Lyten has announced it has raised $200 million as part of its over-subscribed Series B funding round, to scale manufacturing and commercialize its first three product lines: Lithium-Sulfur batteries, lightweight composites, and next generation IoT sensors.

The round is led by Prime Movers Lab, a venture capital firm focused on investments in breakthrough scientific startups and has $1.2B in assets under management. Prime Movers Lab is joined with significant participation from strategic investors and sector leaders Stellantis (previously announced), FedEx Corporation, Honeywell, and Walbridge Aldinger Company. Additional strategic, venture capital and individual investors make up the remainder of the round.

NanoXplore reported record results for Q2 2023, with revenues of $33.3 million CAD (up from $28.3 million last year, or a 18% increase). The company's gross margins are increasing, and the company was cash flow positive ($1.7 million).

NanoXplore says that it has been expanding the volume of its graphene-enhanced products while also improving manufacturing efficiencies. The company says that these good results were achieved despite a challenging macro environment

HydroGraph Clean Power has announced its collaboration with Kansas-based EMP Shield Inc., a company focused on protecting devices from destructive electromagnetic interference. Under this collaboration, the HydroGraph and EMP Shield are developing advanced electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding using HydroGraph’s high-purity graphene.

Electronic equipment can be protected from EMI by conductive or absorptive materials and coatings. HydroGraph and EMP Shield are working together to develop coatings and insulated barriers to protect electronic devices by blocking unwanted disruptions or transmission of electronic data.