Graphene-Info: the graphene experts

Ionic Industries has developed a number of prototype supercapacitor devices using its graphene technologies, and following is a video of one of these devices in operation.

Ionic states that these graphene-enhanced supercapacitors are inexpensive, safe and environmentally friendly and have the potential to power a broad range of Internet-of-Things devices (which are the markets that Ionic will be focusing on in the near term).

An international research team, co-led by researchers at the University of California, Riverside, which also included researchers at MIT, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Institute of High Performance Computing, Singapore; UC Berkeley; and National Institute for Materials Science, Japan, has found a new mechanism for highly-efficient charge and energy flow in graphene, opening the door to new types of light-harvesting devices.

The researchers made pristine graphene into different geometric shapes, connecting narrow ribbons and crosses to wide open rectangular regions. They found that when light illuminated constricted areas, such as the region where a narrow ribbon connected two wide regions, a large light-induced current, or photocurrent, was detected.

Haydale Graphene Industries is to prtner with Wheelsure Holdings to work on a graphene pressure sensor. The project will begin in January and will involve production of a smart graphene pressure sensor targeting the fastener market.

The sensor will integrate Haydale's graphene sensor technology and safety product developer Wheelsure's failsafe locking device. Both parties entered into a commission-based sales arrangement , under which Haydale will introduce the product to customers.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced a $100 million investment aimed towards establishing an Energy-Water Desalination Hub (Hub) to address water security issues in the United States. The Hub will focus on early-stage research and development (R&D) for energy-efficient and cost-competitive desalination technologies including manufacturing challenges, and for treating non-traditional water sources for multiple end-use applications.

The Hub will focus on desalination R&D to provide low-cost alternatives that treat "non-traditional" water sources such as seawater, brackish water, and produced waters, for use in municipal and industrial water supplies, or to serve other water resource needs. Successful research can then reduce demand on stressed freshwater supplies.

Log 9 Materials, an IIT Roorkee spin-off that focuses on graphene material production and application development, has recently exhibited a car named Ranger that runs on air and water at India-UK Future Tech event in India.

Log 9 Materials has reportedly developed a metal-air battery made up of aluminium and water, which will make the eclectic vehicles reduce the burden of charging and petrol prices. The graphene-enhanced battery would only require the users to change aluminium from the battery after every 1000kms.

Researchers from the University of Vienna and international scientists have developed a new nanostructured anode material for lithium ion batteries, which extends the capacity and cycle life of the batteries. Based on a mesoporous mixed metal oxide in combination with graphene, the material could provide a new approach how to make better use of batteries in large devices such as electric or hybrid vehicles.

Schematic representation of the procedure to synthesize the 3D/2D nanocomposite microsphere CNO@GNS active electrode material through spray drying

Researchers are looking for new types of active electrode material in order to push batteries to the next level of high performance and durability, and to make them more suitable for large devices. "Nanostructured lithium ion battery materials could provide a good solution", says Freddy Kleitz from the Department of Inorganic Chemistry - Functional Materials of the University of Vienna, who together with Claudio Gerbaldi, leader of the Group for Applied Materials and Electrochemistry at the Politecnico di Torino, Italy, is the study's main author.

A team of NYU researchers has tackled the longstanding question of how to build ultra-sensitive, ultra-small electrochemical sensors with homogeneous and predictable properties, by discovering how to engineer graphene structure on an atomic level. The team's findings could benefit biochemical detection, environmental monitoring, and lab-on-a-chip applications

Finely tuned electrochemical sensors (also referred to as electrodes) that are as small as biological cells have tremendous potential for medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring systems. However, efforts to develop them have encountered obstacles, like the lack of quantitative principles to guide the precise engineering of the electrode sensitivity to biochemical molecules.