August 2014

Researchers from India's VIT University developed new a basic nanocomposite material for naval/marine application devices. This material is anti-corrosive and is a high-performance functional device, which the researchers say suits the requirements for applications for marine and naval conditions (humidity, temperature, etc).

The material is a graphene-oxide reinforced/conjugated polymer nanocomposite. A PEDO-block-PEG polymer was used as a host medium, with graphene-oxide as a modifier and PVDF as crosslinker. The researchers say this is a novel composite that exhibits high performance in structure, thermal, morphology and electrical properties.

Researchers from TU Delft developed very small graphene membranes (or "drums") that can be used to detect extremely small changes in position and forces. These tiny drums have find applications as sensors, and may also be used as memory chips in a quantum computer.

The researchers refer to these membranes as tiny drums, and they actually demonstrated how you can use microwave-frequency light to play on those drums. The membranes acts as a mirror in an optomechanical cavity. The microwave photos were shot on the drums which acts like a mirror. The researchers were able to sense minute changes in the position of the graphene sheet - even a change of 17 femtometers, nearly 1/10000th of the diameter of an atom.

3D Graphtech Industries, recently established in Australia by Kibaran Resources and the 3D Group, signed an initial agreement with Australia's CSIRO organization to investigate research opportunities in 3D printing using graphite and graphene inks.

CSIRO and 3DGI will jointly perform a white-paper study to identify technological problems in the 3D printing market that can be solved in an R&D program to provide a commercial solution. This is expected to take six weeks, and this initial agreement may lead to a longer-term relationship.

Researchers at from Korea's KAIST institute developed a new method to fabricate defect-free graphene. Using this graphene, they developed a promising high-performance anode for Li-Ion batteries.

The method starts with a Pyrex tube and fill it with graphite powder. The open-ended tube is placed in another, larger tube and potassium is added to the gap between the tubes. The tubes are sealed and heated - which causes the potassium to move inside the micropores in the graphite powder - creating a potassium-graphite compound. This is placed in a pyridine solution, which expands the layer and separates them to form graphene nanosheets - which are then exfoliated to create a single graphene sheet.

A sixteen year-old boy from Lancaster, England developed a composite material that he created from a pencil and sunscreen lotion, that can break down pollutants when exposed to UV light. He suggests using it as a "self-cleaning" coating.

The boy (Samuel Burrow) did some experiments and entered into Google's Science Fair 2014 competition and was eventually chosen as one of the 18 finalists. The grand prize in this competition is a $50,000 scholarship, a trip to the Galapagos islands and more.

In November 2013, the University of Manchester launched the second £50,000 Eli and Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award competition. A couple of days ago, they announced the winner of this year's award - Antonios Oikonomou for his Graphene Characterization and Standardization Services (GCSS) business enterprise.

GCSS, using the National Graphene Institute (at the University of Manchester) in-house expertise, will offer advanced graphene characterization, certification and standardization services. They aim to develop benchmark materials which can be developed into standards to be adopted by the industry.

Researchers from MIT developed a flexible transparent graphene-based electrode for graphene polymer solar cells (PSC). They report that this is the most efficient such electrode ever developed, with power conversion efficiencies of 6.1% (anode) and 7.1% (cathode).

To achieve the record efficiencies, the researchers thermally treated the MoO3 electron blocking layer and directly deposited a ZnO electron transporting layer on the graphene. The researchers say that the process is simple and reproducible.

Researchers from Trinity College in Ireland developed wearable sensors by coating simple rubber bands with graphene. The idea is that the rubber band changes its electric conductivity when it stretches - so even tiny movements (such as breathing or pulse) can be sensed. Such sensors can also be used in the automotive industry, robotics, medical devices and more.

The researchers say that their method is simple and compatible with normal manufacturing techniques. The basic material (rubber) is very cheap of course.

Researchers from China's Beijing Institute of Technology developed graphene-based springs that can function as actuators. Those springs are very light and offer good thermal and electrical conductivity. They are also easy to functionalize and work in harsh conditions.

Most springs today are metal. There has been attempts to create carbon-based springs which are lightweight compared to the metal springs - but those exhibit poor elasticity. But these new graphene springs are very elastic - they can be elongated to 480% of their original size and maintain stable elasticity even after being stretched 100,000 times to 300% of their size.

Researchers from the UK's National Physical Laboratory (BPL) discovered that graphene conductivity in the edges is different compared to the center of the material.

Using local scanning electrical methods, the researchers examined the local nanoscale properties of a graphene Hall bar device. It turns out that at the center of the channel, the graphene is n-doped (electron conduction) while at the edges it is p-doped (hole conduction).