November 2011

Researchers from Rice University discovered a new technique to attach organic molecules to graphene - which can make graphene suitable for use in organic chemistry. Their two-step method converts a single graphene sheet into a superlattice.

In the first step, you create a lithographic pattern that can coax hydrogen atoms to attach to particular places on the graphene's honeycomb matrix. This converts Graphene into a semiconducting superlattice. You then drop hydrogen atoms on the graphene. The second step is to expose the material to diazonium salts.The salts eliminated the hydrogen atoms and left behind a carbon-carbon sp3 bond structure. This structure can be functionalized with other organics.

Electrograph is a new EU-funded three-years project that aims to develop graphene-based electrode materials for supercapacitors. The development target is a combination of graphene and graphene-based material as electrode materials, and use of room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) as electrolyte. At the end of the project the performance of those materials is to be demonstrated in the functional model of supercapacitor. The project is led by the Fraunhofer Institute.

Scientific and Technical Goals:

• Production of graphene in volumes required and with properties adjusted for novel electronic components (electrodes/supercapacitors).
• To establish a feedback between material properties and design parameters.
• Optimizing overall performance of supercapacitors.
• To present a functional model of supercapacitor.
• Assessment of hazard and exposure associated with graphene materials as well as their life cycle impact.
• To identify the potential for value recovery from graphene electrodes.

CVD Equipment announced a new material platform called CVD3DGraphene - chemical vapor deposited 3D graphene products. The platform is based on a graphene-foam like material that is comprised from several 2D graphene sheets that are mechanically and electrically fully interconnected in three dimensions.

CVD says that CVD3DGraphene is a highly customizable material platform that enables the preservation of many of the high performance material properties of the traditional one atom thick two dimensional graphene sheets. Such three dimensional graphene materials can be further functionalized by chemical vapor deposition, electro deposition and/or chemical grafting to develop even more advanced materials for high performance product developments.

Here's a nice short film (produced at Cambridge University) showing what's graphene's all about:

Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered that graphene foam can outperform leading commercial gas sensors in detecting potentially dangerous and explosive chemicals. The foam is made from several graphene sheets (grown on Nickel, which was later removed) and is flexible, rugged and retains graphene's important properties.

The new sensor successfully and repeatedly measured ammonia (NH3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at concentrations as small as 20 parts-per-million. The graphene foam sensor is about the size of a postage stamp and the thickness of felt. Here's a video discussing the production method of the graphene foam:

We just got word that the second edition of Carbomat (the workshop on carbon-based low-dimensional materials) will be held in Catania, Italy on December 5-7, 2011. This workshop aims to bring together researchers coming from multidisciplinary areas (physicists, chemists, biologists, engineers) to present state-of-the-art research findings in the field of nano-sized carbon based materials - which include nanotubes, fullerenes, linear chains, graphene and more.

The main topics of the Workshop are: synthesis, functionalization, characterization, theoretical modelling and applications of low-dimensional carbon structures. Moreover, in this edition, a special session will be focused on the interactions of carbon nanostructures with chemical groups and functional molecules, and to the use of such systems for innovative sensors.

A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge in the UK demonstrated ink-jet printing as a viable method for large area production of graphene devices. The team produced a graphene-based ink by liquid phase exfoliation of graphite in N-Methylpyrrolidone, and used it to print thin-film transistors. The team also printed transparent conductive patterns.

This research paves the way towards all-printed flexible and transparent graphene devices, on any substrate.

Professor Kaustav Banerjee from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) has been named winner of the 2011 international research award by the Electrostatic Discharge Association (ESDA) - following his visionary proposal to investigate the electro-thermal behavior of graphene electronics. The award includes a cash prize of $10,000.

Intel reports that they have already carried out some high-current measurements on the graphene devices prepared by Professor Banerjee's team and were amazed at the current carrying capacity of a monolayer or bilayer of carbon atoms.

Researchers from China's Fudan University say that graphene nanoribbons could potentially be used to create spin valves (one of the basic building blocks of spintronics). They present a theoretic spin valve design that uses two hexagonal graphene "nanoislands" with zig-zag edges, which serve as the magnetic layers in the spin valve, connected by an armchair-type nanoribbon as the non-magnetic layer, through which the electrons can pass depending on the relative alignment of the spins in the nanoislands.

They calcualte that this design enables stable spin configurations at certain energies, and there will be stable configurations in which the islands are polarized either parallel or antiparallel with respect to each other — a necessary requirement for a spin valve.

Researchers from Japan demonstrated that forming honeycomb-like arrays of hydrogen-terminated nanopores on a graphene sheet can make it magnetic. The researchers think that the room-temperature ferromagnetism is caused by electron spins localized at the zigzag-shaped atomic-structured nanopore edges. This was predicted by theory and now has been shown in an experiment. This may one day lead us towards flexible, light, transparent and strong magnets and spintronics devices.