Graphene-Info: the graphene experts

The advanced materials engineering group Versarien announced that it has won a tender for the ongoing supply of nanomaterials to the Centre for Process Innovation. Versarien will supply up to 1.2 kilograms of graphene in a variety of forms to the CPI, in addition to hexagonal layer boron nitride.

Neill Ricketts, chief executive of Versarien, said: "We are very pleased to have been successful in all the tenders we entered into to supply the CPI with our nanomaterials after a competitive process". "For Versarien this is an important route for the commercialization of products enhanced by graphene and other related materials", "We continue to receive record levels of enquires from potential purchasers of our products globally and look forward to making further announcements as appropriate," Ricketts said.

Grolltex, a U.S-based graphene materials and products developer, recently closed an Internal Seed B round of financing, amounting to $600,000. The round was entirely filled by existing shareholders at a valuation of $10 Million.

The company stated that it will use the funds to improve productivity as well as for general corporate purposes. Grolltex uses patented research and technologies developed at the University of California, San Diego, to produce CVD graphene as well as develop products made of graphene.

The Smart Filter project received new Innovate UK funding that follows a previous £700,000 project grant awarded in 2015. The previous grant enabled a two-year project by G2O and the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), focused on transferring and scaling up the water filtration technology from laboratory to industry, ensuring the technology is usable with full quality control.

The technology has since been validated at CPI and the new grant will focus on transferring it to large-scale manufacturing. That will include the use of industrial printing technology to manufacture membranes and validate their performance using prototypes and will involve collaboration with a number of UK partner organizations including chemicals manufacturer William Blythe and CPI.

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a mix of metal nanocrystals wrapped in graphene that may open the door to the creation of a new type of fuel cell by enabling enhanced hydrogen storage properties.

ultrathin oxide layer (oxygen atoms shown in red) coating graphene-wrapped magnesium nanoparticles (orange) still allows in hydrogen atoms (blue) for hydrogen storage applications

The team studied how graphene can be used as both selective shielding, as well as a performance increasing factor in terms of hydrogen storage. The study drew upon a range of Lab expertise and capabilities to synthesize and coat the magnesium crystals, which measure only 3-4 nanometers (billionths of a meter) across; study their nanoscale chemical composition with X-rays; and develop computer simulations and supporting theories to better understand how the crystals and their carbon coating function together.

A team of Researchers from Spain and Italy have created a series of 3D hydrogel scaffolds for neuronal growth using a combination of aqueous graphene dispersions and acrylamide synthesized by in situ radical polymerization.

While this is not the first time acrylamide hydrogels have been synthesized for scaffold applications, they have commonly suffered from biocompatibility issues – a crucial flaw when it comes to implantable scaffolds. To address this issue, the researchers created a series of graphene-polyacrylamide hydrogels which support the growth of living primary neurons.

An international group of researchers, including scientists from Shinshu University in Japan and Penn State’s ATOMIC Center, created a graphene and graphene oxide-based coating for desalination membranes which are said to be more scalable and sturdier than current nanofiltration membrane technologies available.

The result of this creation would hopefully be a filter for clean water solutions, protein separation, wastewater treatment, as well as pharmaceutical and food industry applications. This membrane uses a simple spray-on technology to coat a mixture of graphene oxide and graphene in solution onto a backbone support membrane of polysulfone that is modified with polyvinyl alcohol. The team reports that even in the early stages of the development of the membrane, it can already reject 85% of salt, which is sufficient for agricultural purposes, and 96% of dye molecules.

Researchers at the University of Lisbon's Centro de Química Estrutural have discovered that the addition of graphene to the working fluid of solar collectors helps to regain some of its lost efficiency. Solar thermal collectors are seen as a simple and inexpensive way to make use of solar energy. Pure water is an efficient heat-transfer fluid, but it must be mixed with antifreeze to prevent damage to pipes during freezing conditions, and this lowers its performance.

The properties of an ideal heat-transfer fluid in a solar collector include a high thermal capacity and a freezing point outside of the temperature range likely to be encountered. Unfortunately, in the case of water, satisfying the latter requirement means compromising on the former, as mixing water with antifreeze makes it a less effective carrier of heat.