Researchers from University of California - Riverside (UCR) report that compressed graphene laminate on PET achieve a higher thermal conductivity compared to non-compressed laminates (for the same average flake size). This is due to better flake alignment.

Graphene has a very high thermal conductivity. At room temperature, a graphene sheet has thermal conductivity of 2000 W/mk to 50000 W/mk. When you place it on a substrate the conductivity is lowered substantially (to around 90 W/mk) - but it is still substantially better than that of plastics.

One promising graphene application is in the lubricants market. Graphene NanoChem for example is commercializing graphene-based lubricants for the oil industry (and already signed a deal to supply 135,000 tons of these materials in the next five years). Now researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory discovered that those graphene-based lubricants last longer than conventional lubricants (made from graphite or molybdenum disulfide).

A single layer of graphene, for example, lasts for over 6,500 "wear cycles". This is a great improvement compared to conventional lubricants that will last for only 1,000 wear cycles - and this will only happen if you use about 1,000 layers of those materials.

International wheel producer Vittoria released a new range of bicycle race wheels that are built from graphene-enhanced composite materials. The new wheels (called Qurano) are the best wheels offered by Vittoria, and they say these are the fastest wheels in the world - all thanks to graphene.

The company explains that adding graphene to their carbon-fiber matrix built wheel rim improved the material properties by 10-30%. The graphene reduces temperature build-up, it increases spoke-hole strength and improves the lateral stiffness. Vittoria tells us that even though the Qurano wheels outperform their previous carbon-fiber wheels, they are priced the same.

planarTECH completed the development of a new economical bench-top CVD system for graphene synthesis. The planarGROW-1M features a 1 tube, has a small footprint suitable for desktop use, and can be configured with manual, touch screen or fully automated PC controls.

planarTECH further reports that they already shipped the first system to the University of Costa Rica’s Center for Research in Materials Science and Engineering (CICIMA).

Haydale reported a loss of £2.2 million for fiscal year 2013, up from a loss of £1.1 million last year, mostly due to higher administrative expenses because of its AIM listing. The company posted revenues of £130,000.

The company however is confident that next year will be a successful year. haydale is expanding its operational, sales and marketing capabilities, increasing its graphene functionalisation capabilities, and developing its IP.

In January 2014, the EU launched a new project in which Picosun aimed to utilize their ALD technology to deposit graphene. Now the company announced that it successfully managed to deposit graphene using its PICOPLASMA remote plasma source system, in low temperature (400 degree Celsius).

Picosun collaborated with Xi'an Jiaotong University on this project, and they say that this is a breakthrough achievement that will enable ALD deposition of high quality graphene for many applications. ALD deposition enables the integration of graphene into semiconductor technologies for possible microelectronic device applications.

Bloomberg posted an interesting article on Applied Graphene Materials, the graphene maker that was established in 2010 as a spin-off from Durham University to develop a new CVD-based graphene synthesis method and produce graphene materials. The company's CEO, Jon MabbitT, details some interesting new applications they are trying to develop.

AGM is currently targeting two types of applications. First up are early-adopters, such as Formula 1 teams. But AGM is also looking to enter into long-term products - mainly in the aerospace industry. Graphene can enable stronger and lighter materials, suitable for aircraft. AGM is also working with Dyson (vacuum cleaner developer), Procter & Gamble, lubricants makers and wind-turbine developers. Finally, they are developing an impermeable rustproof coatings for ships.

MIT researchers discovered that crumpling graphene paper (made from graphene sheets bonded together) results in a low-cost material that is very useful for extremely stretchable supercapacitors for flexible devices.

Crumpling the graphene paper results in a "chaotic mass of folds. The researchers developed a simple supercapacitor using this material, that can easily be bent, folded, or stretched to as much as 800% of its original size. The material can be crumpled and flattened up to a 1,000 times, without a significant loss of performance.

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Graphene Nanochem announced that it received the first two commercial orders for its high-value graphene-enhanced PlatQuartZ oilfield material. The first order is a small one (380 drums), while the second is six times larger (2,640 drums) and valued at $5.6 million.

NanoChem also announced that it facing new delays on their graphene-enhanced PlatDrill drilling fluid - due to regulatory and testing constraints. This means that the company is likely to miss market expectations for 2015 (in fact results for 2015 are lkeyl to be "significantly" below current market expectations).