Trying to investigate several doping methods for graphene, researchers have found a way to dope graphene with light. This kind of doping is selective and reversibly - meaning that you can change the material attributes using different light colors, angles or polarization. To achieve that doping method, the researchers attached a plasmonic nano antenna to the graphene. The graphene was doped by hot electrons generated from the antenna.

The doping can be controlled by changing the antenna size or the laser's wavelength and power density. n-type graphene provided a larger doping efficiency than p-type graphene.

Researchers from Lawrence Livermore have developed a new method to mass produce graphene based materials. The idea is to use polymer-derived carbon foams and selectively removing carbon atoms from a network composed of both unstructured carbon and graphite nanoplatelets. This creates a materials whose physical properties can be dynamically changed by an external signal.

The researchers says that the new technique is inexpensive, scalable, and yields mechanically robust, centimeter-sized monolithic samples that are composed almost entirely of interconnected networks of single-layer graphene nanoplatelets. The materials have an ultra-high surface area and may thus be used for energy storage systems. They can also be used as an electrically conductive network to support the active material in battery applications or be used for capacitive desalination.

Researchers from Singapore's A*STAR institute and the US have designed a new way to pack molecule using graphene and graphone (graphene that is hydrogenated on one side) structures. The idea is to use a graphene sheet with a graphone domain that can be used to trap molecules. This is achievable because the graphone region is distorted in 3D to form a cap shape and it is stable well above room temperature.

In the research they used fullerenes as model molecules. It turns out that you can trap several molecules in the same graphone domain. This kind of structure can be useful for energy storage or biological applications.

IDTechEx released a new report (Graphene: Analysis of Technology, Markets and Players 2013-2018 ) on graphene analyzing the technology, market and players in the 2013-2018 time frame. While the material is exciting and has a lot of potential applications, they forecast that the market for graphene will only amount to $100 million in 2018.

The current market for graphene is the R&D sector, but the industry is now gearing up to move to some real applications - which include RFID, smart packaging, supercapacitors, composites, ITO replacement, sensors, logic and memory.

Researchers from UT Dallas have managed to shrink the size of a graphene pore to less than one nanometer - small enough to thread a DNA strand. This can be useful for DNA sequencing.

The researchers used new technique to manipulate the size of the pore, by using an electron beam from an advanced electron microscope and in-situ heating up to 1200 degree Celsius temperature. They say that this is the first time that a graphene nanopore has been controlled. The next step is to build a prototype device to sequence DNA.

Update: here's an interview with the professor who conducted this interesting research.

Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder demonstrated that graphene membranes with tiny pores can effectively and efficiently separate gas molecules through size-selective sieving. Such membranes could one day be used to make natural gas production more efficient, and reduce CO2 emissions from power plant exhaust pipes.

The researchers used ultraviolet light-induced oxidative "etching" to introduce nanoscale pores in graphene sheets. They measured permeability of various gases across the membranes. The membrane can be used to separate gases based on molecular size. Graphene is an ideal material for separation membranes because it's durable but does not require a lot of energy to push molecules through it.

Researchers from the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) discovered a way to use graphene as an extremely thin "tunnel barrier" to conduction. This could be very useful for Spintronics devices. The researchers have shown that graphene can serve as an excellent tunnel barrier when current is directed perpendicular to the plane of carbon atoms. The spin polarization of the current is also preserved by the tunnel barrier.

The researchers replaced the normally used oxide barriers (which introduce defects into the system and feature too high a resistance) with graphene - which is defect resistant and chemically inert and stable.

Researchers from the Rice University have developed highly transparent (95%), flexible, nonvolatile resistive memory devices based on silicon oxide (SiOx) and graphene. This research began in 2008 when they discovered that silicon oxide itself can be a switch. The researchers placed the SiOx and crossbar graphene terminals on flexible plastic.

The new design is much simpler than current flash memory devices as it uses only two terminals and can be stacked in 3D configurations. This can vastly increase the density of memory devices. This memory can also be made in a multi-state mode (i.e. not just binary 1/0).