Graphene sensors: introduction and market status - Page 49

Australian scientists from the Wollongong University developed a graphene-based 'bionic bra', which has now reached the prototype stage. The bra automatically tightens and loosens in response to breast movements, to provide maximum support and comfort.

Work on this technology began in 2000, and it is based on three aspects: sensors and actuators that allow detection of movements, 3D printing which enables the materials to monitor movement and the fabric to respond and graphene fibers (wet spinning produced) that are knitted into a wearable structure to form the bra and monitor movement. The bra contains 'artificial muscles' that receive the movement data and respond accordingly.

The CEI (Central European Initiative, a regional intergovernmental forum committed to supporting European integration through cooperation) has approved the GRAPHSENS project, meant to develop new graphene-based sensors for the detection of various environmental pollutants.

The project will be carried out as a cooperation between Italian and Serbian researchers, utilizing the materials know-how of the Laboratory for Nanostructure Epitaxy and Spintronics on Silicon (L-NESS) in Como, Italy and the Serbian University of Novi Sad's experience with environmental sensors.

Haydale, the UK based company focused on the commercialization of graphene and other nanomaterials, declared its partnership in BIOGRAPHY, an EU funded project (through M-ERA.Net). 

Haydale's proprietary HDPlas graphene-based conductive inks will be used to establish a cost-effective mass production process for graphene-based biosensors, which are predicted to have a major influence on developing healthcare and environmental applications. 

A team of scientists from the TU Munchen, in collaboration with the Spanish Institut de Clencies Fotoniques, managed to devise a methodology for electronically reading optically writen information from quantum computers using graphene. Sensors built using this technology could be used not only to measure extremely fast processes, but also be integrated into future quantum computers and allow clock speeds ranging into the terahertz domain. 

This technique is based on a direct transfer of energy from nitrogen-vacancy centers in nanodiamonds (diamond defects comprising of a nitrogen atom and a vacancy) to a directly neighboring graphene layer. In contrast to the diamonds in which individual nitrogen-vacancy centers are insulated from each other, the graphene layer is electrically conducting. Two gold electrodes detect the induced charge, making it electronically measurable.

Chinese researchers developed and tested a highly sensitive wearable sensor, made of woven thin films of graphene on elastic polymer/double sided tape film, for sound signal acquisition and recognition.

(a) Key steps of preparing the graphene strain sensor; (b) Three ways of collecting and recognizing human voices; (c) Photograph of a bent strain sensor; (d) SEM image of GWFs; (e) Signals of vocalization (black) and un-vocalization (red) are nearly overl

When the sensor is stretched, random cracks appear and decrease the current pathway (increasing the resistance). The film could therefore act as a strain sensor and can be, for instance, put on human throats to measure a person's words through detection of muscle movement, even without actual words being sounded.

Nokia, based in Finland and functions as a large multinational corporation, has recently published a job opening that raises the notion that it might move towards the prototyping phase of graphene-based sensors.

Nokia, which is known to be working on the R&D relating to optical sensors and has already patented a graphene-based photo detector in the past, published a job opening seeking "an expert in optoelectronics" that will be respnosible for developing graphene devices  to create the basis for a range of optical sensor products. The ad also stresses the need for capabilities pertaining to fabrication of devices that are capable of volume production.

The UK based Perpetuus Carbon, producer and global supplier of high quality functionalized graphene, signed a preliminary agreement to achieve full commercial partnership and manufacturing agreement with G24 Power, a leading dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) company from the UK.

Perpetuus is to provide functionalized graphene, in sheet or roll form, for G24’s production of a range of advanced graphene-enabled components. G24 reportedly has manufacturing capabilities of thousands of metres of components per month for use in areas like resistance heating, biosensor platforms, barrier packaging, composite physical reinforcements, water treatment, fuel cell membranes, thermal management and heat dissipation, EMI shielding, electrodes for batteries and supercapacitors and LI-AIR battery cathodes.

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory declared their discovery on heating of the grain boundaries in a graphene sheet (the nanoscale defects where individual grains of graphene stitch the sheet together) when the material is made into a functioning transistor. While this new discovery implies potential for early device failure, the defects themselves might be exploited to make phase-change memories and better graphene-enhanced sensors.

The team measured the nanoscale temperature increases in hexagonal grains of graphene grown by CVD using a technique called Joule Expansion Microscopy (SJEM) - a thermometry technique that works using an atomic force microscope (AFM). The tested graphene transistor was coated with a layer of polymer that expands upon transistor heating, measuring graphene’s expansion and converting the expansion into temperature increase by careful calculations.

The UK's EPSRC council awarded £1 million ($1.6 million) to researchers from Plymouth University to develop graphene-based real-time diagnostic technique for dementia. The researchers will create sensors that will detect biomarkers (found in the blood, urine or saliva) that indicate early stage dementia.

The graphene bio-sensors will provide real-time data unlike existing sensors, and conclusive results will be given within minutes of the sample being taken. The researchers will develop several graphene-based sensors, so combining them will increase the test accuracy.

Researchers from University of Wisconsin (with support from DARPA) developed new 4-atom thick graphene-based sensors that are so thin to be virtually transparent - which allows the sensors to perform both electrical and optical brain measurements at the same time.

The graphene-based contacts are used to measure and also stimulate neural tissue. These kinds of sensors could provide new insights into relationships between brain structure and function, and how these evolve by injury or disease.