Graphene composites: introduction and market status - Page 21

Graphene Composites, a UK-based company developing graphene-enhanced bulletproof shields, has exceeded its crowdfunding target. GC attempted to raise £300,000 on Crowdcube, but ended up raising £510,680 (around 676,625 USD).

Once Graphene Composites had hit its crowdfunding target, the company sent out a message to its supporters saying: Thank You - by investing in GC, you have not only invested in a company that should provide you with a healthy return and strong dividends, you are also enabling us to develop and deliver products that will truly improve the quality of life for many around the world. For example, our GC Shield active shooter protection in schools now, and eventually our Lightning Harvester renewable energy sources. Thank You, from all of us on the GC Team.

ECD Lacrosse, manufacturer of high quality lacrosse equipment, has teamed up with Global Graphene Group (G3) to develop ECD's Rebel +Graphene heads, which were released in a limited edition.

The customized composite of G3’s graphene with ECD’s polymer reportedly benefits from graphene's properties, including its light weight and impact resistance. The resulting Rebel +Graphene lacrosse heads exhibit increased impact strength, increased stiffness, and no perceptible additional weight.

Reports out of China state that Chinese authorities have audited and approved research by Linglong Tire into the "large-scare application" of graphene rubber composites in tires".

The research was conducted jointly by Beijing Tiancheng Linglong Tire, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Linglong Tire, and Beijing University of Chemical Technology. An audit was conducted by Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission along with other Chinese technology institutes.

The labs of Rice University chemist James Tour and Christopher Arnusch, a professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, introduced a batch of graphene-enhanced composites that can be a step towards more robust packages.

By infusing laser-induced graphene with plastic, rubber, cement, wax or other materials, the lab made composites with a wide range of possible applications. These new composites could be used in wearable electronics, in heat therapy, in water treatment, in anti-icing and deicing work, in creating antimicrobial surfaces and even in making resistive random-access memory devices.

Rice University and Iran University of Science and Technology researchers have found a unique ceramic material that could act as a sensor for structures.

The ceramic becomes more electrically conductive under elastic strain and less conductive under plastic strain, and could lead to a new generation of sensors embedded into structures like buildings, bridges and aircraft able to monitor their own health.

Graphenest has launched two products, based on a proprietary graphene production method, now available to pre-order with a campaign price for a limited time.

The first product is HexaShield, a graphene-based paintable coating for RF electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radiation shielding. It reportedly provides drastic weight reduction, and reduced manufacturing cost as compared to metals, while achieving the required protection for the Gigahertz frequency range.

2018 will soon be over - and it was a good year for the graphene industry. Graphene-based products are entering the market, and new advances in many applications have been reported. It seems that graphene is finally starting to fulfill its promise.

Here are the top 10 stories posted on Graphene-Info in 2018, ranked by popularity (i.e. how many people read the story):

1. On Nanotech Engineering's 92% efficiency graphene-CNTs solar panel claim (Jan 15)
2. New graphene-based 'atomristors' could pave the way towards more powerful computing (Jan 19)
3. Haydale and WCPC awarded contract to develop advanced wearable technology for athletes training for the 2020 Olympic Games (Sep 20)
4. Graphene-enhanced sodium-ion batteries show promise as cheap, effective lithium alternative (Feb 11)
5. Australian CSIRO develops promising graphene-based water filtration membrane (Feb 15)
6. Ghostek launches the world's first headphones with graphene drivers (Jan 1)
7. Callaway launches new graphene-enhanced golf balls (Jan 23)
8. First Graphene provides updates on the BEST Battery project (Feb 21)
9. Graphene-based heating devices hit the market (Feb 19)
10. University of Arkansas aims to commercialize its revolutionary graphene-based VEH technology (Jan 23)

Researchers from the U.S. Army, in collaboration with RDECOM Research Laboratory, the Army's corporate research laboratory (ARL), Stanford University, MIT, University of Southern California and Argonne National Laboratory, have discovered a way to get more energy out of energetic materials containing aluminum, common in battlefield systems, by igniting aluminum micron powders coated with graphene oxide. This research could lead to enhanced energetic performance of metal powders as propellant/explosive ingredients in Army's munitions.

This discovery makes use of graphene oxide as an effective light-weight additive for practical energetic applications using micron-size aluminum powders (µAl), i.e., aluminum particles one millionth of a meter in diameter.

This is a guest post by Guillaume Chansin

Graphene is probably the most hyped material of the past decade, but so far commercial applications have been limited. Graphene is mostly used as an additive inside composites and plastics to enhance their thermal or structural properties. In the most recent high profile case, Huawei announced the integration of a passive graphene cooling film to improve heat management inside one of their smartphones. While this is a useful use of graphene, it is a far cry from the disruptive electronics that were promised when the material was first isolated.

It is worth considering that both investments and patent filings in graphene peaked in 2015. Nearly four years later, we can expect to see some of these to start paying off with some product launches.

Versarien has announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group Co Ltd. ("CTCE"), a subsidiary of China Railway Group Limited ("CRG").

CRG is one of the world's largest construction and engineering contractors and is listed on the Shanghai and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges. CTCE is specifically focused on railway, bridge, tunnel and highway infrastructure engineering. It is active in China and overseas, including in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.