Graphene batteries: Introduction and Market News - Page 27

Today we published new versions of all our graphene market reports. Graphene-Info provides comprehensive niche graphene market reports, and our reports cover everything you need to know about these niche markets. The reports are now updated to July 2018.

The Graphene Batteries Market Report:

• The advantages using graphene batteries
• The different ways graphene can be used in batteries
• Various types of graphene materials
• What's on the market today
• Detailed specifications of some graphene-enhanced anode material
• Personal contact details into most graphene developers

The report package provides a good introduction to the graphene battery - present and future. It includes a list of all graphene companies involved with batteries and gives detailed specifications of some graphene-enhanced anode materials and contact details into most graphene developers. Read more here!

Versarien, the advanced materials engineering group, has provided an update on its activities in relation to graphene-enhanced power storage devices like batteries and supercapacitors. The primary goal of incorporating graphene into these devices, Versarien says, is to significantly increase power storage capacity and reduce charging times.

Versarien has been working with WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group) and their partner companies and scientists at the universities of Warwick and Cambridge to collaborate on the production of power storage devices such as batteries and supercapacitors using Versarien's proprietary Nanene graphene nano platelets. Significant advances have been made through incorporating the Company's high quality graphene into these devices and the Company looks forward to commercial products becoming available in due course.

First Graphene is collaborating with Flinders University to launch 2D Fluidics - a company that will aim to commercialize the Vortex Fluidic Device (VFD). 2D Fluidics is 50% owned by FGR and 50% by Flinders University’s newly named Flinders Institute for NanoScale Science and Technology.

The VFD was invented by the Flinders Institute for NanoScale Science and Technology’s Professor Colin Raston and enables new approaches to producing a wide range of materials such as graphene and sliced carbon nanotubes. The key intellectual property used by 2D Fluidics comprises two patents around the production of carbon nanomaterials, assigned by Flinders University.

Researchers at the Institute of Energy and Climate Research (IEK-1) in Germany have developed a material comprising tin oxide nanoparticles enriched with antimony, on a base layer of graphene, that can reportedly triple the capacity of a battery cell and dramatically cut the charging time.

"An important factor is the anode material," said Prof Dina Fattakhova-Rohlfing from the Institute of Energy and Climate Research (IEK-1), who led the research. "In principle, anodes based on tin dioxide can achieve much higher specific capacities, and therefore store more energy, than the carbon anodes currently being used. They have the ability to absorb more lithium ions. Pure tin oxide, however, exhibits very weak cycle stability - the storage capability of the batteries steadily decreases and they can only be recharged a few times. The volume of the anode changes with each charging and discharging cycle, which leads to it crumbling."

Global Graphene Group (G3), the holding company of Angstron Materials and Nanotek Instruments, has announced G3-Fireshield Technology a suite of next generation battery components to dramatically reduce the risk of fire occurrences in EVs, portable electronics, and a range of other devices.

G3 states that this breakthrough is the first of its kind to overcome the intrinsic flammability problems associated with multiple battery material components. G3 explains that a conventional Li-ion battery is made up of three primary components: a negative electrode, a separator soaked in electrolyte solution, and a positive electrode. At elevated temperatures, brought on by mechanical, electrical or thermal abuse, each of these components undergoes chemical and/or structural changes that release energy from the cell in harmful ways.

Rice University scientists have developed a simple way to create conductive, 3D objects made of graphene foam. The resulting objects may offer new possibilities for energy storage and flexible electronic sensor applications, according to Rice chemist Prof. James Tour.

The technique is an extension of groundbreaking work by the Tour lab that produced the first laser-induced graphene (LIG) in 2014 by heating inexpensive polyimide plastic sheets with a laser. The laser burns halfway through the plastic and turns the top into graphene that remains attached to the bottom half. LIG can be made in macroscale patterns at room temperature.

MGX Minerals' energy storage subsidiary ZincNyx Energy Solutions will be looking at the use of graphene-based materials to incorporate in its battery technology. ZincNyx and its research partners have secured a grant of CAD$580,000 (around $446,000 USD) from Canada's Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) over the next three years to develop 'nanostructured material' for the next generation of Zinc-air energy storage.

ZincNyx has developed a modular storage system using zinc and air to store energy, which has none of the traditional high cost battery commodities such as lithium, vanadium or cobalt. ''Graphene is getting a lot of attention for many applications, but is particularly promising for electrochemical reactions since it can perform on par with traditionally used platinum'' said project lead Professor Jeff Gostick of the University of Waterloo, Calgary, Canada.

Signet International Holdings has announced a Letter of Intent for the acquisition of HyCarb, a Florida-based company operating in association with the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida to develop graphene-enhanced batteries.

HyCarb has reported that it is currently completing the prototype of its first phase, the "HyCarb Coin Cell Battery". The battery is expected to be ready for manufacturing within the next year. "This new generation Graphene battery has proven to be amazing," says Signet's president Thomas Donaldson. "Within the next twelve months, we will be on the market delivering a coin cell battery far superior than the Lithium Ion battery in use today."

Australia-based mining company Archer Exploration has announced a collaboration agreement with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) to develop and implement Archer’s graphite and graphene materials for use in energy storage system applications targeting lithium-ion batteries.

The collaboration will mainly focus on the design of high-performance electrodes for lithium-ion batteries using graphite and graphene sourced from Archer’s Campoona deposit. This work is aiming at the development of electrodes for lithium-ion batteries and implementation of these electrodes in a number of advanced application full-cell and half-cell configurations.

Archer Exploration Limited recently announced a Collaboration Agreement with Flex-G (FlexeGRAPH) to jointly develop graphite and graphene based advanced materials for the thermal management of electric vehicle batteries, internal combustion engines, and high-performance computing systems.

The agreement includes advanced materials development, processing, evaluation and characterization, and in particular focuses on the development of thermal management applications using materials from AXE’s Campoona project.