Researchers from ETH Zurich and LG Electronics developed a stable porous membrane made from only 2 layers of graphene. They say that this is the thinnest possible porous membrane that is technologically possible to make.

The new membrane can be used as a filter for several different purposes - such as waterproof clothing. In fact the researchers say that their membrane will be a thousand fold more breathable than Goretex! Other applications may include water filteration and gas and liquid flow rate measurements.

Update: the deal is now complete, and Versarien acquired 85% of 2-DTech

Advanced engineering materials maker Versarien announced that it acquired 2-DTech (a subsidiary of the University of Manchester) for £440,000 (around $740,000) in cash and ordinary shares.

2-DTech makes and supplies 2D materials, including CVD-made graphene, graphene platelets, graphene oxide and other 2D materials. The company also offers prototyping of graphene based devices. One of 2-DTech suppliers is Graphene Industries.

PlanarTech licensed a MoS2 process technology from Columbia University. The company can now provide comprehensive training to its customers in the growth of monolayer MoS2 by CVD using the methods developed at Columbia.

PlanarTech says they delivered their first MoS2-capable CVD system to the lab of Prof. Jongmin Kim at the University of Oxford.

Researchers from Monash University use graphene and carbon nanotubes to develop a spaser (a nano-laser that emits a beam of light through the vibration of free electrons unlike the electromagnetic wave-emission process of regular lasers).

This new spaser is more robust and flexible compared to regular spasers made from silver and quantum-dots. It can also withstand high temperatures and is eco-friendly.

Researchers from England and Ireland's Trinity College developed a method to produce graphene flakes using very simple equipment. The idea is to simply mix powdered graphite with N-methyl-pyrrolidone and then mix it in a blender at high speed. This results in graphene flakes which are about a nanometer thick and 100 nanometer long. This method actually work with a regular kitchen blender!

The researchers say that the blender blades separate the graphite into graphene sheets without damaging the 2D structure. During their experiments, they made several grams of the graphene material, but they say it can be scaled up to produce in ton quantities.

Haydale successfully went public last week, raising £6.6 ($11 million). The market value was £23.6 million (almost $40 million), but shares dropped (by 15%) in the following days and the company is now worth £20 million.

Haydale is developing and marketing carbon materials under the HDPlas brand. The company currently focuses on graphene, CNTs and zinc nanomaterials. The company also developed metal-free graphene-based inks. In October 2013 we posted an article explaining Haydale's business and technology. Haydale revealed that for the year ended in June 2013, the revenues were $153,000 while the operating loss was $1.8 million.

Cientifica entered into an option agreement with Rainmaker Technologies - to invest up to 49.9% in the company. There are three options actually, the first one is to acquire 25.4% in the company by May 15, in exchange for £100,000 ($167,000).

According to Cientifica, Rainmaker will work with Perpetuus Carbon Technology to supply graphene materials for Rainmaker's products. Rainmaker plans to bring new graphene-enabled products to the market in 2015.

Graphene Laboratories and HayDale signed a non-exclusive agreement that brings HayDale's HDPlas range of graphene materials to Graphene Lab's Graphene Supermarket web site.

HayDale's materials will be marketed by Graphene labs in the US, Canada and Russia. This agreement marks Haydale’s intent in increasing its presence in the US R&D market.

Researchers from Japan and Korea suggest a new way to make graphene - from rice husk (agricultural "waste"). They say that this method may prove to be an easy, scalable and cheap way to produce graphene. As annual rice husk waste is about 120 million tons a year, it's potential for graphene feed material is large.

Activated carbon has been made for a long time from rice husk ash, but this is the first time that graphene structured have been observed in such rice husk-derived activated carbon. In addition, the researchers found that highly crystalline and atomically clean edges are present in the synthesized materials, even though the graphene sample was prepared at relatively a low temperature of 850°C. These findings suggest that the resulting graphene may find applications in energy storage and conversion devices.

Last month we reported that UK's Haydale is planning to raise £10 million (about $16.6 million) via an IPO on the UK's AIM sometimes in April. Yesterday the company officially announced its intention to float on the AIM on April 14.

Haydale intends to use the money they will raise to expand and broaden engineering, production, technical and business development teams to support product development. Earlier reports suggested that the market value of the company will probably be in the low £30 million range ($50 million).