Researchers at the UK's University of Leicester, Russia's Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology and Kemerovo State University, TerraVox Global in Cyprus, National University of Singapore and the University of Twente in the Netherlands have gained better understanding of superlubricity, where surfaces experience extremely low levels of friction.

The team addressed a longtime mystery in the principles of superlubricity – a state in which two surfaces experience little to almost no friction when sliding across one another. Superlubricity is associated with molecular smooth surfaces such as graphene and has only been observed in a laboratory environment where these surfaces can be synthesized. In various technological applications, this phenomenon could potentially reduce friction up to 1000 – 10000 times, as compared to conventional friction in machines and mechanisms.

Versarien has updated that it has raised £400,000 through a placing to bolster its working capital position and take advantage of business leads it is receiving.

The Company will use this further funding to progress the conversion of recent leads while the asset sale discussions continue. Versarien also recently signed a sales agreement with Go To Gym for the distribution of Graphene-Wear products across the Americas, and a collaboration with IRPC, a Thai petroleum and petrochemical giant, for the co-development of advanced materials.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in India recently launched a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Intelligent Internet of Things (IIoT) Sensors and a graphene center - India Innovation Centre for Graphene (IICG) in Kerala.

The India Innovation Centre for Graphene (IICG) was established at Makers Village Kochi by MeitY and Government of Kerala along with Tata Steel Limited.

Advanced Material Development (AMD) has announce that it has received UK Government Defense and Security Accelerator (DASA) funding for its radar absorbing technologies. This funding will allow AMD to further demonstrate its materials as an effective application in this field.

Funded by the Army Research Innovation and Exploitation Laboratory (ARIEL), a part of the Army’s Futures Directorate, the competition seeks novel low-cost and adaptable autonomous air systems to give the UK an advantage.

Black Swan Graphene has announced a range of Graphene Enhanced Masterbatch ("GEM") products. These GEMs offer different performance and attributes of products aimed at multiple applications in the polymer industry. This announcement follows a recent commercial agreement ratified with Hubron International, a global leader in black masterbatch manufacturing. 

Black Swan stated that its products are the results of extensive internal development efforts, including independent verification using the expertise at the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre ("GEIC") and a strategic partnership with Hubron. The primary objective of the product development endeavors extends beyond performance; it strives for consistency, a pivotal factor in the commercialization of additive products. 

Black Swan Graphene has announced a commercial agreement with Hubron International, specializing in customized solutions in plastic masterbatch and conductive compound manufacturing. This strategic partnership is set to fast-track the commercialization of Black Swan's graphene products, leveraging Hubron's 80 years of compounding expertise and market access.

Hubron specializes in black masterbatch production with over 85% of its products exported worldwide. Hubron and Black Swan will explore opportunities to incorporate the use of graphene-enhanced masterbatch for improved functionality where commercially and technically possible. Hubron will also play a crucial role in the manufacturing of graphene enhanced black masterbatch for commercial applications. Black Swan, in turn, will be a preferred provider of graphene for such manufacturing endeavors.

A new study, led by the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) along with the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and other international partners like the University of Manchester (under the European Graphene Flagship project), presents EGNITE (Engineered Graphene for Neural Interfaces) - a novel class of flexible, high-resolution, high-precision graphene-based implantable neurotechnology with the potential for a transformative impact in neuroscience and medical applications. 

This work aims to deliver an innovative technology to the growing field of neuroelectronics and brain-computer interfaces. EGNITE builds on the experience of its inventors in fabrication and medical translation of carbon nanomaterials. This innovative technology based on nanoporous graphene integrates fabrication processes standard in the semiconductor industry to assemble graphene microelectrodes of a mere 25 µm in diameter. The graphene microelectrodes exhibit low impedance and high charge injection, essential attributes for flexible and efficient neural interfaces.

University of Arkansas physics professor Paul Thibado received a commitment of $904,000 from the WoodNext Foundation, administered by the Greater Houston Community Foundation. The five-year grant will support Thibado’s development of graphene energy harvesters.

“We have successfully developed a process for building graphene energy harvesting device structures,” Thibado said, “but current structures do not harvest enough power. This proposal will allow us to optimize these structures to harvest nanowatts of power, which is enough energy to run sensors.”  

Researchers at the University of Sussex and the University of Brighton have presented their recent work on thermoelectric capture, using highly conductive graphene sheets, which aims to improve technologies that capture and convert heat into electricity and tackle the barriers standing before these methods. The aims to advance the possibility of cheap, sustainable technologies for heat capture and conversion – as well as reach a new understanding of how conductivity in graphene-based nanomaterials can be best exploited.

The team assembled nanomaterial networks of varying density and size, from few to many layers of graphene sheets, then measured electrical conductivity as the different arrays were exposed to heat. Their expectation was that the assemblies of larger, thicker sheets would exhibit the highest levels of conductivity but in fact, the opposite outcome was observed, where the smaller, thinner sheets spontaneously formed dense-packed arrays, and performed better than the many-layered samples. 

Researchers at China's Hunan University, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Washington in the U.S have developed a metal-free nanozyme based on graphene quantum dots (GQDs) for highly efficient tumor chemodynamic therapy (CDT).

GQDs have potential as a cost-effective means of addressing the toxicity concerns associated with metal-based nanozymes in tumor CDT. However, the limited catalytic activity of GQDs has posed significant challenges for their clinical application, particularly under challenging catalytic conditions. "The obtained GQDs, which are made from red blood cell membranes, are highly effective in treating tumors with few side effects," said Liu Hongji, a member of the research team. "One of the advantages is that they are metal-free. In addition, they function as excellent peroxidase-like biocatalysts."