Biology

Tata Steel has developed a new product, a few-layer film of rGO along with its collaborators at CeNS, Bengaluru. The company is now starting to mass-produce the films and offer them to application developers.

Figure 1: (a) Digital image of rGO/Cu foil (5 cm2). Contactact angle (b) and AFM height profile (c) on rGO/Cu

The rGO film is produced (using a modified CVD process) on copper. The film's average thickness is 5-10 nm and offers a corrosion rate of 0.02 mm/year (Tafel) and a water contact angle of ~ 97°.

These unique properties make the film suitable to protect the copper from corrosion, chemical attacks, and thermal oxidations. It also makes copper hydrophobic and can act as an antibacterial surface.

The potential toxicity of graphene and graphene oxide has been on people's minds lately. This is an area that has always received some attention, but recently there have been rumors and wild speculations about the adoption of graphene oxide and the risks involved.

Researchers have been studying the toxicity of graphene and graphene oxide for many years. While these materials have not yet been established as completely safe for use, there are quite a few research results that indicate that graphene can be relatively safe under the appropriate conditions.

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Researchers from Empa and the Adolphe Merkle Institute (AMI) in Fribourg have conducted studies on a 3D lung model to examine the behavior of graphene and graphene-like materials once they have been inhaled.

The lung model at Adolphe Merkle Institute (AMI)

Thanks to the 3-D lung model, the researchers have succeeded in simulating the actual conditions at the blood-air barrier and the impact of graphene on the lung tissue as realistically as possible without any tests on animals or humans. It is a cell model representing the lung alveoli. Conventional in vitro tests work with cell cultures from just one cell type the newly established lung model, on the other hand, bears three different cell types, which simulate the conditions inside the lung, namely alveolar epithelial cells and two kinds of immune cells macrophages and dendritic cells.

In 2012, researchers from Stony Brook University established Theragnostic Technologies to develop a new efficient and cost-effective graphene-based MRI contrast agent. In 2015 Theragnostic launched the product, called ManGraDex, which needs several of years of clinical trials before it can be commercialized (the company aims for 2022 or 2023).

Theragnostic Technologies now announced that it has received a new SBIR phase-1 grant from the NIH to extend the ManGraDex platform for use in X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) imaging. The company will demonstrate the preclinical safety and efficacy of a novel graphene-enhanced CT contrast agent for imaging and monitoring in patients with renal failure or at risk of contrast induced nephropathy.

San Diego-based Nanomedical Diagnostics, established in late 2013 to develop cutting-edge diagnostics equipment, recently started shipping its graphene-based sensors and the AGILE R100 system which allows for real-time detection of small molecules - with no lower size limit. Nanomedical's graphene-based sensors enable faster sample processing, greater accuracy, portability and cost savings.

The company's CEO, Ross Bundy, was kind enough to explain the company's technology and business to us.

In 2012, researchers from Stony Brook University established a new company called Theragnostic Technologies to develop a new efficient graphene-based MRI contrast agent that is safer and cheaper than current gadolinium-based agents.

Next month the company is set to unveil its product, the ManGraDex graphene-based MRI agent. The company says that this new contrast agent will greatly improve the MRI safety and efficacy of MRI - and will also expand the MRI market into unserved renal and cardiovascular patients.

Scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago engineered a humidity sensor on a bacterial spore. They call it NERD, for Nano-Electro-Robotic Device. They've taken a spore from a bacteria and put graphene quantum dots on its surface, then attached two electrodes on either side of the spore. Then they change the humidity around the spore,causing the spore to shrink. As it shrinks, the quantum dots come closer together, increasing their conductivity, as measured by the electrodes.

The researchers report a very sharp reaction once the humidity is changed, around 10 times faster than a sensor made with the most advanced man-made water-absorbing polymers. There was also better sensitivity in extreme low-pressure, low-humidity situations. The researchers also said it is possible to go all the way down to a vacuum and see a response, which is important in applications where humidity must be kept low,like preventing corrosion or food spoilage and space applications, where any change in humidity could signal a leak.

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.

Researchers from China's Xi'an Jiaotong University suggest a new bio-inspired soft robot platform made from graphene composites. The graphene robot is driven by near-infrared (nIR) light as graphene has excellent photothermal conversion efficiency in the nIR light band.

The team suggests building a microfish made from graphene and polymers. The microfish is controlled by nIR light. This is bilayer (pure-PDMS and GNP-PDMS) platform that is easily produced by scraping coating and spin coating processing. The bilayer platform is a soft photoresponsive material that can work in both air and water.