Graphene composites: introduction and market status - Page 16

Directa Plus has signed a letter of intent with high-end furniture manufacturer Poltrona Frau for leather development.

The collaboration will be for an initial two years with the aim of developing a new leather product which will use Directa Plus' graphene technology.

Researchers from the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, have developed a novel palladium-based electrocatalyst for hydrogen production that exhibits high catalytic efficiency with a low overpotential and high durability. The catalyst realized is basically a partially reduced composite of coordination polymer and reduced graphene oxide (COP-rGO composite).

The future of hydrogen as a fuel lies in the design of efficient electrocatalysts for electrochemical splitting of water to produce hydrogen. The commercially used Platinum (Pt)/Carbon (C) catalysts are efficient but expensive and suffer from metal ion leaching or electrocatalyst corrosion when used for long duration.

Directa Plus recently signed a technical and commercial agreement with automotive design and engineering firm Italdesign.

The partnership has been signed for an initial nine years to explore, test, and build automotive components that are enhanced by properties of the company's proprietary graphene technology. Applications could include car interiors, paints, and mechanical components.

Versarien has announced the launch of its first graphene-enhanced protective face mask, which utilizes Polygrene, Versarien’s graphene-enhanced polymer.

The launch of the new protective face mask is said to coincide with the first two orders Versarien has received following recent prelaunch sales activity, which resulted in 100,000 masks being delivered to a leading British university and 20,000 ordered by a UK electrical and mechanical servicing and repairs business.

In May, First Graphene announced it is collaborating with Hexcyl to develop PureGRAPH-enhanced HDPE materials for use in Hexcyl’s range of oyster baskets and long-line farming systems. Now, First Graphene updated on successful trial results from the application of PureGRAPH graphene to these oyster baskets with the South Australian shellfish aquaculture manufacturer Hexcyl Systems.

Using FGR’s PureGRAPH products, the High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) reportedly showed improvements in strength, wear resistance and longevity.

First Graphene has announced a collaboration with the University of Warwick on a project to unlock the potential of graphene in thermoplastic systems.

First Graphene has secured an award under the Warwick Collaborative Post Graduate Research Scholarship Scheme, in conjunction with the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG). WMG has established a successful model for collaboration between academia and the private and public sectors and has very strong links with world-leading industrial partners such as Jaguar Land Rover, who have located their advanced research group at the WMG campus.

A team of Brown University researchers has found a way to double the toughness of a ceramic material used to make solid-state lithium ion batteries. The new strategy could be useful in bringing solid-state batteries to the mass market.

There’s huge interest in replacing the liquid electrolytes in current batteries with ceramic materials because they’re safer and can provide higher energy density, said Christos Athanasiou, a postdoctoral researcher in Brown’s School of Engineering and lead author of the research. So far, research on solid electrolytes has focused on optimizing their chemical properties. With this work, we’re focusing on the mechanical properties, in the hope of making them safer and more practical for widespread use.

ZEN Graphene Solutions has announced it will be launching a new research collaboration with Prof. Mohammad Arjmand and his team at the University of British Columbia (UBC)‐Okanagan Campus, with a $200,000 Department of National Defence (DND) Innovation for Defense Excellence and Security (IDEaS) award.

ZEN will be providing in-kind contributions of Albany Pure materials and consultation with its technical team.The goal of this collaborative research project is to develop electrically conductive, molded and 3D printed graphene/polymer nanocomposites as more versatile replacements for metallic electromagnetic shields that are currently in use.

First Graphene (FGR) has entered an agreement with Aquatic Leisure Technologies (ALT) to supply PureGRAPH products over the next two years. ALT is an Australian family business, considered an industry leader in pool innovations.

Incorporating First Graphene's PureGRAPH graphene powders into the new range of pools will enable a brand new construction process to provide the next generation of fibreglass pool technology.

A research team, which includes researchers from Penn State, the University of Virginia and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in collaboration with industry partners Solvay and Oshkosh, has found that adding small amounts of graphene to the production process of carbon fibers - which are typically expensive to make - both reduces the production cost and strengthens the fibers and so could one day lead to using these lightweight, high-strength materials to improve safety and reduce the cost of producing planes and cars.

For decades, carbon fibers have been a mainstay of airplane production. If created in the right way, these long strands of carbon-based atoms are lightweight, stiff and strong. "Even though carbon fibers have really nice features, they would make a car far more expensive" with the way carbon fibers are manufactured now, said Adri van Duin, professor of mechanical and chemical engineering, Penn State. "If you can get these properties easier to manufacture then you can make cars significantly lighter, lower the cost of them and make them safer."