Graphene News - Page 1

SaltX Technology, a Swedish energy storage company, recently announced that it has passed the first milestone in the strategic development project together with Ahlstrom-Munksjö, a global manufacturer of fiber-based materials.

Over the last six months, the companies have reportedly been able to verify an industrial manufacturing method to coat graphene on paper and integrate it with SaltX patented nano-coated salt for its large-scale energy storage solution. The graphene manufacturer 2D fab participates in the project and supplies the graphene. The companies are now initiating production runs in Ahlstrom-Munksjö’s pilot line.

A study by Brazilian physicist Aline Ramires with Jose Lado, a Spanish-born researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), showed that a simple sheet of graphene has fascinating properties due to a quantum phenomenon in its electron structure called Dirac cones. The system becomes even more interesting if it comprises two superimposed graphene sheets, and one is very slightly turned in its own plane so that the holes in the two carbon lattices no longer completely coincide. For specific angles of twist, the bilayer graphene system displays exotic properties such as superconductivity.

The researchers found that the application of an electrical field to such a system produces an effect identical to that of an extremely intense magnetic field applied to two aligned graphene sheets. "I performed the analysis, and it was computationally verified by Lado," Ramires said. "It enables graphene's electronic properties to be controlled by means of electrical fields, generating artificial but effective magnetic fields with far greater magnitudes than those of the real magnetic fields that can be applied."

Researchers from the University of Strasbourg & CNRS (France), in collaboration with Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland) and the University of Florence (Italy), have developed a new generation of pressure sensors based on graphene and molecular “springs”. The researchers say that thanks to their highest sensitivity, these devices are ideally suited for health monitoring and point-of-care testing.

The team reports that many electroactive materials have been employed for this purpose. Among these, graphene has been the most studied because of its excellent electrical conductivity, exceptional mechanical properties and large surface area. The researchers rely envision applications of graphene-based sensors in the form of tattoos.

researchers from Jiliang University and Zhejiang University of Technology in China, along with researchers at the Technical University of Denmark, have devised a new design for a graphene-based sensor that can simultaneously detect multiple substances - including dangerous bacteria and other pathogens. In addition to food safety, the new design could improve detection of gases and chemicals for a wide range of applications.

"Our design is based on graphene sheets, which are two-dimensional crystals of carbon just one atom thick," said research team member Bing-Gang Xiao, from China Jiliang University. "The sensor is not only highly sensitive but can also be easily adjusted to detect different substances."

Researchers at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) have found that graphene could better fulfill its potential when purified to remove silicon, doubling its electrical performance.

Despite researchers demonstrating countless possible applications of graphene, many people feel that graphene is thus far showing rather sluggish industrial adoption. Now, researchers based at RMIT have proposed a possible reason for this and suggested how graphene's full potential could be unlocked.

India-based Log 9 Materials is working graphene-based metal-air batteries, that in theory may even lead to electric vehicles that run on water.

LOG 9 BATTERY COMPOSITION (LOG 9 MATERIALS)

The metal air batteries use a metal as anode, air (oxygen) as cathode and water as an electrolyte. A graphene rod is used in the air cathode of the batteries. Since Oxygen has to be used as the cathode, the cathode material has to be porous to let the air pass, a property in which graphene excels. According to Akshay Singhal, co-founder of Log 9 Materials, the graphene used in the electrode is able to increase the battery efficiency by five times at one-third the cost.

US-based graphene developer XG Sciences recently made headlines with a production expansion announcement - and an exciting deal with Ford to supply it with graphene-enhanced parts for the latest the Mustang and F-150 automobiles.

We have reached out to XGS' CEO, Philip Rose, who was kind enough to answer a few questions we had regarding the company's latest materials, plans and business.