Researchers at Northwestern University managed to explain a previously puzzling conundrum regarding graphene oxide membranes' water solubility. Since graphene sheets become negatively charged in water, they should logically repel each other (which will ruin the membrane). In reality, water seem to do the opposite and stabilize the membrane, which remained inexplicable until recently.

The researchers tested different graphene oxide membranes and discovered that the purest one did, in fact, disintegrate in water as expected. They found that an aluminium preparation filter corrodes slightly in the acidic solution that is used for membrane preparation. The positive aluminium ions released bind to the charged graphene oxide sheets and stabilize them. Other metal ions from the production process can also cause the same effect.

University of Exeter scientists discovered that GraphExeter, an adaptation of graphene, is durable to prolonged exposure to high temperatures and humidity. This makes the material not only a transparent, flexible and lightweight conductor, but a resilient one at that. The scientists predict major importance of this discovery for various electronic applications (and a possible ITO replacement).

GraphExeter is a University of Exeter discovery, and is made of sandwiched molecules of ferric chloride between two graphene layers. It turns out that this creates a unique conductor with many useful traits, which is also now proving to be durable: the researchers found that it can withstand relative humidy of up to 100% at room temperature for 25 days, as well as temperatures of up to 150C or as high as 620C in vacuum.

Transphene is a new graphene venture jointly owned by Carbon Sciences and Dr. Kaustav Banerjee, the will concentrate on the commercial development of a technology to mass produce graphene.

Carbon Sciences is an American-based company that develops a graphene production process technology that was originally invented at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). The process transforms natural gas into commercial size sheets of graphene that can be fine-tuned with application-specific electrical and materials properties. Carbon Sciences is a public company trading on the NASDAQ (OTC:CABN). 

Today we're launching a new post series: personal Graphene interviews. Each one will feature an industry professional - we hope this is going to be a fun opportunity to get to know the people behind Graphene a bit better. If you wish to be featured, contact us here. This first post will be about our very own Ron Mertens, just to get the ball rolling.

Ron Mertens, Graphene-Info's editor-in-chief

What was the last book you read? Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. A (long) tale of an Australian outlaw that escaped to India.

The Graphene-Info team is excited to announce its attendance in the LOPEC 2015 conference, March 3-5, Messe Munchen, Germany. LOPEC (large-area, organic & printed electronics convention) is a leading international exhibition and conference for the printed electronics industry. LOPEC will host international market leaders aiming to present innovations, latest materials and groundbreaking processes to all walks of industry folk. 

If you wish to schedule a meeting with us, contact us here. Until then, enjoy this LOPEC video:

The Graphene-Info team would like to wish all its readers a prosperous new year, one of commercial scale success! As Confucious dictates: one must "Study the past if you would define the future. So in this retrospective mood, here are 2014's top 10 graphene applications, ranked by the number of posts written about them.

1. Batteries
2. Sensors
3. Supercapacitors
4. 3D printing
5. Electronics
6. Composites
7. Solar
8. Medicine
9. Photonics
10. Heat conduction

Batteries rank unsurpirisingly at the top, as there is a considerable amount of interest and developments in this field. Recent major battery stories include Tesla's speculated use of graphene-enhanced batteries in their Roadster 3.0 and Graphenano's revolutionary graphene polymer batteries for electric cars.

Researchers at the North California State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and China Pharmaceutical University (CPU) developed a graphene-based drug delivery system for two anti-cancer drugs to cancer cells. 

The technique uses graphene strips to deliver the drugs, with each drug targeting the distinct part of the cell where it will be most effective. The technique was found to be very efficient (in laboratory conditions) and outperform either drug in isolation.

Researchers at MIT and Harvard University found a way to use folded DNA to control the nanostructure of inorganic materials. DNA structures are built in a certain shape, then used as templates to create nanoscale patterns on sheets of graphene. This technique can further large-scale production of graphene electronic chips.

This technique forms DNA nanostructures with precisely planned shapes using short synthetic DNA strands called single-stranded tiles. Each of these tiles acts as an interlocking brick and binds with four designated neighbors. The researchers transferred the structural information encoded in DNA to graphene, using a relatively simple process that includes anchoring the DNA onto a graphene surface using a molecule called aminopyrine, which is similar in structure to graphene. The DNA is then coated with small clusters of silver along the surface, which allows a subsequent layer of gold to be deposited on top of the silver.

A few days ago, Tesla announced the implementation of several improvements to their Roadster model, one of which involves an intriguing battery enhancement. Tesla claims to have identified a new cell technology that has 31% more energy than the original Roadster cell. Using this new cell, the company created a battery pack that delivers roughly 70kWh in the same package as the original battery.

Although graphene was not specifically mentioned in this statement, it does stand to reason as a Chinese website stated that the Roadster 3.0 "uses graphene in the production of the battery, which increases its energy storage capacity significantly. The battery range improves by 50% which enables the 3.0 version to travel 644 km on one charge".

An innovative graphene-enhanced thermometer was exposed by the Chinese Linktop Technology during the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES).