Graphene-Info: the graphene experts

UK-based Haydale reported its preliminary financial and business results for FY2018 (which ended on June 2018). Total revenues in 2018 reached £4.23 million (up from £3.91 in 2017), which included £3.4 million in commercial revenues and £0.83 million in grant income.

The net loss before tax in 2018 was £6.12 million (up from a £5.64 million loss in 2017). At the end of the year, Haydale had £5.09 million in cash and equivalent. Haydale says it enters FY2019 with cautious optimism. Two encouraging sings are a recently signed five-year SiC contact extension, and steadily increasing graphene ink sales to several print houses for the bio-medical sensor market.

Earlier in 2018 Applied Graphene Materials (AGM) launched their Genable 3000 dispersion range - graphene based, active non-metallic, anti-corrosion additives. AGM has now reported results from further testing, which not only underlines the potential for significant anti-corrosion performance gains but also the products commercial attractiveness – particularly under harsher C4/C5 corrosive environments.

Incorporated into the formulation of an industry standard C3 epoxy primer system, and tested under representative cyclical salt spray testing (ASTM G-85-94 Prohesion), Genable 3000 series materials have been shown to deliver a 5-fold extension in coating lifetime, based on a single 60 micron dry film thickness. These results are supported by a detailed mechanical dataset and studies incorporating combination with a PU topcoat exploring intercoat adhesion and overcoating intervals. All results confirm the products attractiveness for development into commercial anti-corrosion systems.

Gilding is the process of coating intricate artifacts with precious metals. Ancient Egyptians and Chinese coated their sculptures with thin metal films using gilding—and these golden sculptures have resisted corrosion, wear, and environmental degradation for thousands of years.

Microscope image of a graphene crystal on a palladium leaf

In a new study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Sameh Tawfick was inspired by this ancient process and used it with a twist - he added a layer of graphene on top of palladium metal leaves—doubling the protective quality of gilding against wear and tear.

First Graphene has announces the release of its PureGRAP graphene products. Over the last five months FGR’s management has worked with various universities and on its own production processes to ensure it could consistently produce a suitable range of products.

The initial product includes PureGRAPH graphene products with lateral sizes of 20µm, 10µm and 5µm. Further size options are planned to be added later. FGR says that due to its unique process it is able to produce graphene with larger lateral sheet sizes if a customer should have a particular application.

In 2016, Briggs Automotive Company (BAC) developed a vehicle made with graphene in its bodywork. Now, BAC received funding to undertake graphene research, with a view to pushing the technology towards production-readiness for the automotive industry.

The road-legal, single-seater supercar – the BAC Mono – received the Niche Vehicle Network (NVN) grant alongside Haydale Composite Solutions and Pentaxia Composites and will further explore the benefits of using graphene in composite body panels.

Haydale recently announced that it has completed the installation and commissioning of a two-roll lab mill at its site in Loughborough, UK, that will allow Haydale to compound nanomaterials into a range of elastomers, graphene included, which will support customers interested in using nanomaterials in their elastomeric products for a range of property improvements, such as thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity and increased mechanical performance.

The new elastomer mixing capability joins the current elastomer moulding and testing facilities that are already on site at Haydale in Loughborough, UK, thereby bringing in-house the facility for Haydale to serve customer requirements for nanomaterial enhanced elastomer development.

Graphmatech, a Swedish materials technology startup that develops and sells novel graphene-based nanocomposite materials and services, has closed a seed investment round led by ABB Technology Ventures (ATV), the venture capital arm of ABB, and Stockholm-based Walerud Ventures. Three other investors participated in the round.

Graphmatech has invented and patented a technology to ensure the separation of graphene flakes during the graphene production process, called Aros Graphene: a powder that can be dissolved in water, oil, plastics or metals, utilized to coat surfaces or 3D-printed without loss of graphene’s properties.