Graphene-Info: the graphene experts

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) has collaborated on a project to advance the development of a low-cost, self-cleaning coating technology for industrial filter membranes.

The Smart Filter project used graphene and its derivatives to create a coated filter membrane that offers increased resistance to fouling for industrial waste water treatment. Membrane filters are used in a number of industrial separation applications but are afflicted by fouling, which typically lowers throughput or increases energy consumption, and reduces filter life. Focusing upon oil water separation and nuclear waste water treatment, the collaboration, with G2O Water Technologies, Haydale and Sellafield, developed a repeatable, reproducible and scalable process to make coated filter membranes, which delivered a 30% improvement in permeability when compared to an equivalent uncoated filter.

This is a sponsored post by IDTechEx

We have been following the graphene industry as analysts for the past seven years. The results of our ongoing research can be seen here: www.IDTechEx.com/graphene. In this time, we have seen the industry grow in maturity.

At first, the industry was an over-hyped field, full of over-promising, under-delivery, and utter confusion. Then, the community spent multiple years to covert itself into a viable proposition in multiple ways:

Graphene Flagship researchers at DTU, Denmark, solved the problem of graphene's accumulation of defects and impurities due to environmental exposure by protecting it with insulating layers of hexagonal boron nitride, another two-dimensional material with insulating properties.

Peter Bøggild, researcher at Graphene Flagship partner DTU and coauthor of the paper, explains that although 'graphene is a fantastic material that could play a crucial role in making new nano-sized electronics, it is still extremely difficult to control its electrical properties.' Since 2010, scientists at DTU have tried to tailor the electrical properties of graphene, by making a very fine pattern of holes, so that channels through which an electric power can flow freely are formed. 'Creating nanostructured graphene turned out to be amazingly difficult, since even small errors wash out all the properties we designed it to have,' comments Bøggild.

Talga Resources has revealed new test results on the ongoing optimization of its graphene silicon Li-ion battery anode product, Talnode™- Si. According to Talga, the battery anode product returns further performance gains, now delivering ~70% more energy density than commercial graphite-only anodes.

The product reportedly provides a “drop in” solution for improving current Li-ion battery performance. Commercial samples under confidentiality and material transfer agreements are scheduled to commence delivery around the end of February 2019 - recipients are said to include some of the world’s largest electronic corporations.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow in Scotland have developed an electronic “skin” that can generate and store electricity for prosthetic devices.

The technology consists of layers of a finely tuned graphite-polyurethane composite covered by graphene. The team explained that the graphite-polyurethane works as an electric supercapacitor, storing energy that can be used at any time by a prosthetic. The graphene component is said to essentially be a solar panel that converts sunlight to electricity to charge the supercapacitor.

On April 10-11, Berlin will host IdTechEx's annual Graphene & 2D Materials Europe event, as part of its Printed Electronics Europe. The Graphene-Info team will visit this event, so if anyone wishes to schedule a meeting - now is a great time to do so!

The graphene & 2D materials event is co-located with eight other events focused on printed & flexible electronics, energy storage, electric vehicles, energy harvesting, internet of things, wearables and sensors.

Aiming to ramp up their international operations, Urbix Resources will reportedly work with Hanoi-based Vietnam Graphite Group to build a 70,000 tonne purification plant in Vietnam. The Vietnamese purification plant will be situated within VGG’s graphite mining operations in North Western Vietnam and will serve customers in Japan and the surrounding region.

The facility is scheduled for stage one completion in late 2020. It is anticipated the purification plant will have the capability of achieving revenues exceeding US $200 million annually once the second stage is completed the following year. It appears that the plant will be used to produce, among other materials, graphene oxide and graphene nanoplatelets.