Graphene-Info: the graphene experts

Sparc Technologies has announced positive results from 16-week cyclic corrosion testing of HydroGraph Clean Power's Fractal Graphene within Sparc's ecosparc® additive in solvent-based protective coatings. A commercial solvent-based coating dosed with ecosparc® containing HydroGraph's graphene reportedly showed a 25% improvement in corrosion resistance (scribe creep) compared to the same coating unmodified, under ISO 12944-6 testing methodology corresponding to C5 Very High (C5-VH) durability.

The result builds on water-based testing Sparc conducted with HydroGraph's graphene last year, which showed up to 60% improvement in corrosion resistance and led the two companies to sign a Letter of Intent (LOI) in March 2026 to evaluate HydroGraph's Fractal Graphene in ecosparc® more broadly. Extended 25-week (4,200-hour) cyclic corrosion testing is now underway, with results expected in November 2026. Subject to a positive outcome there, Sparc and HydroGraph plan to negotiate a definitive commercial supply and collaboration agreement.

Researchers at King Khalid University, Warsaw University of Technology and Saveetha University have used molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulations, and computational toxicity screening to examine whether adding graphene oxide (GO) to hydroxyapatite (HA) dental implant coatings could improve how strongly bone-related proteins bind to the implant surface. In their entirely computational study, the team modeled how a set of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins and integrin receptors interact with simulated GO, HA, and combined GO-HA surfaces.

Titanium dental implants are mechanically strong but biologically inert, which can slow the early bone-implant bonding (osseointegration) that determines whether an implant takes hold. Hydroxyapatite coatings, which chemically resemble bone mineral, are already used to help bridge that gap, but the researchers note that HA coatings show inconsistent protein binding and can delaminate over time. GO has drawn interest as an additive because its high surface area and oxygen-containing functional groups (hydroxyl, carboxyl, epoxide) can, in principle, promote stronger protein adsorption - but GO also carries known dose-dependent cytotoxicity concerns, which is part of what this study set out to weigh.

Researchers at Hebei University of Technology, Nankai University, and the Oil & Gas Technology Research Institute of Huabei Oilfield Company have developed a millimeter-scale, magnetically recoverable carbon bead catalyst that achieves complete removal of the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole (SMX) from water within 20 minutes, while largely avoiding the metal leaching that has limited earlier cobalt-based catalysts for this kind of water treatment.

Sulfamethoxazole is a widely used antibiotic that has been accumulating in water systems, and cobalt-based catalysts are among the most effective materials for breaking it down via peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation, but conventional powdered cobalt catalysts tend to leach metal into the water over time, degrading their performance and creating a secondary pollution problem of their own. To get around this, the team built millimeter-sized beads (named CoNC@cPAN/rGO-800) by combining a cobalt-based metal-organic framework precursor (ZIF-67) with polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and graphene oxide, then calcining the mixture into a porous carbon structure with cobalt species locked inside. The graphene oxide is reduced to rGO during this process and lowers the material's electronic impedance and helps disperse the cobalt more evenly through the carbon framework. The primary catalytic site is the embedded cobalt nanoparticles and cobalt oxide.

Researchers at Stony Brook University, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, have patented a new method for measuring dew point and detecting icing conditions using a graphene oxide film, offering a potentially far cheaper alternative to the expensive chilled-mirror hygrometers currently used for precision humidity measurement.

Dew point - the temperature at which moisture in the air begins condensing on a surface - is considered a more reliable humidity metric than relative humidity, since it stays constant regardless of temperature changes. Chilled-mirror hygrometers, which cool a surface to find that exact condensation point, are regarded as the most accurate instruments for the job and are widely used in labs and industrial settings requiring precise, repeatable humidity control. However, these laboratory-grade instruments are notoriously expensive and can be temperamental in operation.

Researchers at the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), Hanbat National University, Chungnam National University, the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, Kyungpook National University, and the Gumi Electronics and Information Technology Research Institute (GERI) have developed a hierarchical graphene nanowall (GNW) "nanomesh" that delivers up to six times the sensitivity of conventional planar graphene gas sensors, while remaining flexible and breathable enough for wearable use.

Wearable gas sensors need to operate sensitively at room temperature while staying mechanically compliant for long-term wear, but most existing designs rely on planar sensing layers that limit accessible surface area. Vertically oriented graphene nanowalls offer an edge-rich, high-surface-area alternative, but growing them conventionally requires temperatures above 600°C, incompatible with flexible polymer substrates — and transfer-based workarounds keep the resulting structure planar rather than truly three-dimensional. The team's solution was a "3D-on-3D" architecture: graphene nanowalls grown directly onto a three-dimensional polymer nanofiber nanomesh rather than a flat film. An electrospun polyamic acid nanomesh was converted to polyimide, coated with a thermally robust parylene layer, and given a thin SiO₂ nucleation layer, allowing vertically oriented GNWs to be grown across the fiber network via low-temperature plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition without collapsing the underlying scaffold.

Researchers at Nagoya University and RIKEN have developed a new two-step annulative π-extension (APEX) method that grants access to a far broader range of structurally diverse nanographenes than previous approaches allow - including a rare, non-planar structure built from fused five-, six-, and seven-membered rings.

Nanographenes - molecular fragments of graphene built from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) - are of interest for OLEDs, organic solar cells, and organic field-effect transistors, since their electronic and photophysical properties can be tuned through size and shape. APEX reactions, which build fused aromatic frameworks directly onto unfunctionalized PAHs via C-H functionalization, have made such molecules more accessible, but the structural diversity achievable has been limited by the small number of complex, predesigned reagents available for one-step approaches. The team's method splits the process in two. First, a palladium catalyst paired with the oxidant ortho-chloranil selectively arylates PAHs at specific sites using a broad range of naphthalene-based aryltrimethylsilanes - including sterically congested variants that are difficult to introduce through conventional cross-coupling - to build structurally complex polyarylene intermediates. Second, an oxidative cyclodehydrogenation (Scholl reaction), driven by DDQ and triflic acid, closes these intermediates into nanographenes containing 8 to 10 fused rings, spanning both planar and warped frameworks.

Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) has released new third-party cycling data on its fast-charging G®CELLS graphene battery technology, developed under GMG's Joint Development Agreement with mining giant Rio Tinto and with support from the Battery Innovation Center of Indiana (BIC) in the United States.

Testing conducted by BIC on 1 Ah G®CELLS - built by BIC using materials developed, manufactured, and supplied by GMG at its Brisbane Battery Development Centre - reportedly showed no measurable capacity fade after 489 charge-discharge cycles as of September 4, 2026, despite each full cycle (10C charge, 10C discharge) completing in just six minutes. By comparison, a benchmark lithium titanate oxide (LTO) cell, cycled under the same profile, degraded to 86% of its original capacity - near the industry-standard 80% end-of-life threshold - within just 64 cycles. That puts the G®CELLS' demonstrated cycle life at more than seven times that of the LTO benchmark.