Haydale signed a research and collaboration agreement with the Swansea University’s Welsh Centre for Printing and Coatings (WCPC). Haydale and the WCPC will further refine and develop Haydale's proprietary ink formulations to fully commercialize graphene based inks and coatings.

The first stage will focus on a number of specifically targeted inks and coatings. Haydale will supply ink formulationas to the WCPC, which will develop and refine them. The collaboration is also looking at the exploitation of functionalised graphene and other carbon nano-materials developed by Haydale in areas such as transparent conductive films, barrier coatings and 3D printing.

IBM is an embarking on an ambitious project to find the next-generation chip technology to replace silicon. IBM will invest $3 billion over the next five years in this project. IBM will look into graphene, carbon nanotubes, quantum computing, silicon photonics and more technologies.

GFET radio frequency receiver IC (IBM)

In the first stage of the project, they will try to build transistors in a 7 nm process, which they believe is already possible using silicon technology available today. But the second stage will look into different materials and architectures. IBM says that it is getting more and more difficult to shrink silicon chips further and silicon is reaching its limits.

Researchers from Philips, Graphenea and the University of Cambridge developed a monochrome OLED device that uses graphene as the transparent conductor layer. They report that the graphene-based TC outperforms that state-of-the-art ITO solutions currently used for OLED panels.

ITO is the most popular material for transparent conductors in displays and solar cells, but it is expensive, rare and brittle, and a lot of companies are developing alternatives - based on silver, carbon or other materials.

Abalonyx announced that it entered into a partnership with Kongsberg Innovasjon for both engineering support and an investment that will enable Abalonyx to start mass producing graphene oxide materials. Kongsberg Innovasjon will purchase a 21.5% stake in Abalonyx.

Since 2012, Abalonyx had a pilot production line, used to produce GO samples and verify the scalability and safety of its process. The two companies are now developing a new facility (in south east Norway) that will start production in Q3 2014 with a capacity of 8 tons/year.

Aixtron announced today that Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) has ordered an AIX BM plasma-enhanced CVD system to support their graphene and carbon nanotubes research. The reactor can handle 4" substrates and Aixtron will deliver it in Q3 2014.

This is KAUST's first BM Pro system, which will be used to expand their graphene research with an aim to find a "wide range of new applications".

Last month Australia's Strategic Energy Resources (SER) announced that it will focus on graphene-related investments, disclosing that it has an alliance with Monash University and an exclusive license agreement on the energy storage graphene technologies.

Today it was announced that SER and Monash University have been awarded a second ARC Linkage Grant for graphene-based research. The three-year project will cost $375,000 (probably AUD, which translates to $350,000 USD). The ARC will fund $255,000 and the rest will be funded by SER. The project (titled Green Manufacturing of Graphene from Indigenous Natural Graphite and Graphene-based Nanofiltration Membranes) aims to establish a green chemical route for transforming graphites fines into graphene.

In December 2013, Graphene Nanochem, in cooperation with the National Innovation Agency of Malaysia agreed to launch Malaysia's national graphene hub, with hopes that Malaysia will turn into a global graphene innovation hub. Now the Malaysian government has launched the National Graphene Action Plan (NGAP) 2020, a "strategic and calculated venture on graphene".

The NGAP 2020 outlined five potential industries that could best benefit from graphene — rubber additives, Li-ion battery anode/ultra-capacitors, conductive inks, nanofluids and plastic additives. The government says that according to their studies, by 2020 Malaysia could capture a $20 million nanofluids market, a $90 million plastic market and a $4.4 billion rubber market.

Graphene Frontier, spun off from the University of Pennsylvania, is producing graphene using their own Atmospheric Pressure CVD (APCVD) technology, a roll-to-roll process that does not require a vacuum. The company published a nice short video introducing the technology, with a focus on sensor applications.

In November 2013 I posted an article describing Graphene Frontier's technology and business following my talk with Michael D. Patterson, the company's CEO.

The EU-supported ElectroGraph project succeeded in developing graphene-based supercapacitor electrodes. Graphene enhances the surface area of the electrode, which makes it a great replacement for activated carbon (the currently used material). To demonstrate this, the consortium developed a car side-mirror that uses the graphene-enhanced supercapacitor charged by a solar panel.

The ElectroGraph electrodes surpassed commercially available ones by 75% in terms of storage capacity. ElectroGraph was coordinated by the Fraunhofer IPA Institute, and it mostly looks into supercapacitor applications for the automotive industry.

In March 2013, researchers from China's Zhejiang University developed the world's lightest material ever made, Graphene Aerogel, is made from freeze-dried carbon and graphene oxide. Today it was reported that that bit of Graphene Aerogel was sold in an auction in China for 10 million yuan ($1.6 million).

Graphene Aerogel was developed by a nanometer-macromolecule research group at Zheijang, led by Professor Gao Chao. The material has excellent properties, and may find usages in areas such as oil-absorbent and organic absorbants. Carbon Aerogel can absorb up to 900 times its own weight.