May 2024

Sparc Technologies has announced the commencement of ecosparc (its flagship graphene-based additive product) field trials with the South Australian Department for Infrastructure and Transport (DIT).

The steel piles for the Streaky Bay Jetty remediation project have been delivered to DIT for blasting and coating. Sparc has provided both the ecosparc-enhanced and control coating to DIT and agreed the arrangement of the steel piles on the project. 

It was reported that a team of researchers at India's Nagaland University (NU) has developed a novel and environmentally-friendly method for producing bromographene, a modified form of graphene. This new approach is said to not only be faster and safer than traditional methods, but also showcase the potential for eco-friendly chemical processes in industrial applications.

While graphene has exceptional strength and outstanding electrical and thermal conductivity, its practical use is often hindered by its poor solubility in common solvents. This limitation is overcome by bromographene, a modified form of graphene that enhances its chemical reactivity and versatility.

The EU-funded MEGAMORPH project, which started in 2022, demonstrated its graphene-based display technology at Displayweek 2024.

The idea behind the project is to use CVD graphene sheets (produced by Graphenea, a partner in the project) as the semi-transparent membranes in a Interferometric Modulator Display. These kinds of displays use mechanical micro-mirrors as pixels that modulate the ambient light without using power to generate light. IMOD displays are promising as they can offer very low power operation and high density displays.

Researchers from Italy's Sapienza University of Rome, Portugal's International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), University of Minho and Universidade de Lisboa have developed a sustainable approach to produce an electrically conductive, graphene-based paste suitable for fabricating flexible devices such as microsupercapacitors (mSCs).

The new method enables the scalable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly production of high-quality graphene materials, paving the way for advanced applications in energy storage and flexible electronics.

HydroGraph Clean Power recently announced that it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement of units of the Company, for aggregate gross proceeds of up to CAD$1,600,000 (over USD$1,171,000).

Net proceeds from the Offering will be used for furthering commercialization via application development at the GEIC (Graphene Engineering Innovation Center) driven by customer interest, production upscaling, business development and general working capital purposes. 

Haydale recently displayed, for the first time in public, its revolutionary new solution to automotive seat heating labelled the ‘Hot Seat’ at the NEC in Birmingham. Using the Company's patented process and unique materials, Haydale has developed an alternative to existing automotive seat heating technology.

This interesting graphene application is based on the production of a seat heater that is faster to heat, uses less energy and offers a green and eco-friendly alternative to the current solutions. Using the same technology in place for their Underfloor Heating range of products under development, Haydale has now adapted this to provide a novel application for heated seating.

Scientists at the University of Bath, working in collaboration with Integrated Graphene, have created a new type of chemosensor (demonstrated for lactic acid sensing) which functions with electricity but without the need for reference electrodes or battery power. The new design potentially offers lower cost, better shelf-life, and ease of miniaturization compared to enzyme-based sensors. This could open up the possibility for an easy-to-use sensor to be used in remote locations, such as an athletics track, without the need for electricity-powered sensing equipment.

The sensor was able to detect lactic acid, a by-product generated by the body when it metabolizes carbohydrates or glucose for fuel, for example, during exercise. High levels of lactic acid are linked with higher risks of falling unconscious or into a coma and major organ failure.

Researchers from Japan's Tokyo Institute of Technology and Institute for Molecular Science recently investigated the impact of high-density Ca introduction to C₆CaC₆ - a graphene-calcium compound which exhibits high critical temperature. In this compound, a layer of calcium is introduced between two graphene layers in a process called intercalation. 

While this material already has high critical temperatures, some studies have shown that critical temperatures and therefore superconductivity can be further enhanced through the introduction of high-density Ca.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana−Champaign, Sandia National Laboratories, and the University of Duisburg-Essen have shown that when graphene is irradiated with ions, the electrons that are ejected give information about its electronic behavior. 

Moreover, the Illinois group performed the first calculations involving high-temperature graphene, and the Duisburg-Essen group experimentally verified the predictions by irradiation.

NanoXplore has reported its financial results for Q3 2024. Total revenues were CAD$33,867,747 (USD$24,896,011) in Q3-2024 compared to CAD$31,580,560 (USD$23,214,711) in Q3-2023, representing a 7% increase; 

The Company reports total liquidity of CAD$40,149,612 (USD$29,512,976) as of March 31, 2024 and total long-term debt of CAD$5,515,205 (USD$4,054,089) as of March 31, 2024, down by CAD$2,360,683 (USD$1,735,279) compared to June 30, 2023.