Energy storage - Page 11

UK-based graphene supercapacitor developer Zap&Go announced that it was awarded with a $1.6 million USD from the European Union to perfect the prototype cordless tools powered by its fast-charging graphene supercapacitors.

Zap&Go initiated a self-funded feasibility study to embed its graphene supercapacitors in cordless tools. The company says that it has received commitments from major OEMs in joint development agreements. In this new EU-funded project, Zap&Go intends to further develop its power modules and electronics, integrating them with cordless tools such as vacuum cleaners and power drills, and finally build units to conduct customer trials.

Haydale Graphene Industries recently stated that it has entered a memorandum of understanding with Nanospan India to collaborate on developing advanced nano composites for the Indian market.

Nanospan, a graphene application development firm based in India, will work with Haydale to develop composites focused on the defence, aerospace and energy sectors in India.

Lomiko Metals has announced that it will be presenting a summary of the Graphene Energy Storage Devices Corp. (GESD) Graphene Supercapacitor Project at the Battery Material Conference in Toronto September 2016.

GESD is currently working on scale-up of the technology and an in-field evaluation of the energy storage unit with Stony Brook University. The GESD-SBU team demonstrated design and implementation of a sealed high-voltage EDLCs energy storage unit. The unit is internally balanced, there is no need for an external circuit. The electrode is very cost-effective nano-carbon composite either of a commercial carbon or of graphene platelets with carbon nanotubes. The nano-carbon electrode materials were used for deposition and assembly of a working prototype of an internally balanced high-voltage energy storage unit. The bench-top prototype unit, tested up to 10 V, exhibited good discharge characteristics and charge retention. This development enables new compact energy storage solutions for grid and vehicular applications.

Talga Resources has outlined its updated commercialization strategy. It is seeking to unlock early commercialization opportunities based on the production of four specific graphene products for use within targeted industrial markets. The development of these product lines is in addition to the supply of raw graphene and graphite materials which has been the Company’s focus to date.

The new strategy is reportedly a progression made possible by the growth of Talga’s pilot plant facility in Germany. Recent equipment scale up and a significant boost to the Company’s technical team enables this new ‘applied products’ capability and expedited path to associated sources of revenue.

Researchers from AIST in Japan and Nanjing University in China have developed a metal-organic framework-based graphene oxide composite as a separator for Li-S batteries, that could help solve the polysulphide shuttling problem in these batteries. The composite acts as an ionic sieve that selectively separates out Li+ ions while stopping polysulphides migrating to the anode and reportedly helps reduce capacity decay rates down to just 0.019% per cycle over 1500 cycles.

MOFs are ordered solids made of inorganic sub-units connected by organic linkers. They have a large surface area and highly ordered pores, and their porosity can be tuned. According to the researchers, the MOF membrane in this work separates out polysulphides based on their size and shape; The team chose a copper MOF that possesses a 3D structure with micropores that have narrow accessible size windows of around 9 Å. This is smaller than the diameter of lithium polysulphides (that are between 4 and 8 Å in diameter) and so the pores effectively block the sulphides. The researchers found that the MOFs do not degrade even after 200 cycles of battery charge/discharge, and no polysulphides pass through the membrane for 48 hours.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed an electron beam technique to allow for the complete destruction of electronic data. The electron-beam writing technique that induces the deposition of carbon on a graphene surface, referred to as "focused electron beam induced deposition", is a type of direct-write additive lithographic technique. With the method, by altering the energy levels, exposure time, and location of the e-beam the rate of carbon deposition changes, leading to the re-write and direct-write events occurring.

This method allows for nanoscale engineering of future graphene-based devices for information. This means that not only can data be re-written, the original functionality of the device can be changed and energy storage devices, sensors and nanoelectronics could be re-configured.

We're happy to announce a new market report, Graphene for Supercapacitors. This report, brought to you by the world's leading graphene experts, is a comprehensive guide to graphene technologies for the supercapacitor market. Graphene is an exciting material that promises to revolutionize entire industries - and it has a bright future in energy storage applications in general and in supercapacitors specifically.

Reading this report, you'll learn all about:

• The advantages of using graphene in supercapacitors
• Various types of graphene materials
• Market insights and forecasts
• What's on the market today

Other topics include:

• A list of all graphene companies involved with supercapacitors
• Prominent research activity in this field
• Free updates for a year

Elcora Advanced Materials recently reported on the progress of its Graphene R&D Lab in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Construction of the graphene production facility commenced in February 2016 and the equipment is now in place and commissioning is reportedly on schedule.

According to the company, the lab will develop and optimize a small industrial-sized graphene production chain, as well as conduct graphene research in energy storage, coatings and printed electronics, developing commercial applications. The (approximately) 2000 sq ft size Lab is designed to provide secondary refining of the company's graphite from the Ragedara Mine in Sri Lanka as well as other graphite deposits, and to produce quality graphene for distribution and sale to other R&D organizations. In addition, it will also be used to conduct Elcora's own internal graphene application development, as part of the company's vertical integration plan.

CealTech aims to become a leading global producer of high volume, high quality graphene, ultra-fine graphite and fine graphite. Production will be done by CealTech's independently-developed FORZA 3D graphene production unit (patent pending).

The FORZA prototype unit is currently under development and should be ready for operation by October 2016. CealTech's daily single layer graphene production capabilities starting October 2016 will be 1600m², and are planned to grow to 150,000 m² starting 2020.

Graphene 3D Lab has announced a new class of graphene materials with exceptional oil absorbance properties. The Company has commissioned a new production reactor that results in a 5-fold increase in the production capabilities of Graphene Oxide and Reduced Graphene Oxide; Using this extended capacity, the Company produced a new class of materials: Graphene Oxide and Reduced Graphene Oxide Foams. These foams are in the class of ultralight materials and have density of approximately 20 mg/cm 3 , which is only about 17 times heavier than air.

These new materials are able to hold up to 3,500%-8,000% of their own weight of organic solvents and oils, all while being unaffected by water. This attribute could be significant in minimizing the damage caused by oil spills. Due to its high oil absorption capacity, these porous solid state foams are an excellent solution for fast and effective oil clean-up. In addition, they may also have commercial application in energy storage devices, chemical catalysts and ultrasensitive sensors.