Indian University receives grant for a project to turn plastic waste into graphene

A $300,000 USD grant (nearly Rs 2 crore) has been secured for a 3-year project proposed by Kumaun University in Nainital, to synthesize graphene from plastic waste for use in energy and biomedical applications.

The project will use a specially designed multipurpose incinerator (furnace) to synthesize graphene from plastic waste and also for conversion and collection of the fuel from plastic waste for automobile and other industrial applications. Waste material, garbage, and plastic will be collected for the project from Nainital and adjoining areas.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 19,2016

Graphene 3D Lab reports new reactor to expand its graphene production capability

Graphene 3D Lab has announced the commencement of a new production reactor that results in a 5-fold increase of production capabilities of Graphene Oxide and Reduced Graphene Oxide.

According to G3L, the necessity of expanding production volume for these materials is driven by increased demand as well as by the internal consumption of the Company's Industrial Materials division. G3L stated that it is committed to staying on track to satisfy the increasing materials demand. said

Read the full story Posted: Apr 19,2016

Anson Resources reports production of single layer graphene

Anson Resources recently announced that single layered graphene has been produced from graphite flakes from the Company’s Ajana Graphite Project, located in Western Australia. The research work was carried out by Flinders University of South Australia.

The graphene was produced by exfoliating the Ajana graphite sample with a high energy surfactant system, and both single and multilayered graphene can be seen in the scanning electron microscope image. The graphene sheets range in size from 1 to 10 microns. High resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) was used to show the pristine nature of the single layered graphene sheets.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 17,2016

Advanced graphene and nanomaterials research center opened in Brazil

The Advanced Graphene, Nanomaterials & Nanotechnology Research Center (MackGraphe) was recently unveiled at Mackenzie Presbyterian University (UPM) in São Paulo, Brazil. Built with support from FAPESP, the Mackenzie Presbyterian Institute and the National Council for Scientific & Technological Development (CNPq), MackGraphe has received an investment of more than R$100 million (over $28 million) and is the first center of its kind in Latin America.

MackGraphe includes nine stories and more than 4,000 square meters of floor area. It will aim to explore the properties of graphene and other two-dimensional (2D) materials with a view toward industrial applications. MackGraphe’s state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment are staffed by a team of researchers who specialize in producing and characterizing graphene for industrial applications.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 16,2016

Graphene-based sensor to detect harmful gases in homes and buildings

Researchers at the University of Southampton and the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have designed a graphene-based sensor that can detect harmful air pollution in the home with very low power consumption.

The sensor detects individual CO2 molecules and volatile organic compound (VOC) gas molecules found in building and interior materials, furniture and even household goods. These harmful chemical gases have low concentrations of ppb (parts per billion) levels and are extremely difficult to detect with current environmental sensor technology, which can only detect concentrations of parts per million (ppm). According to the team, the new sensing technology allows realizing significant miniaturization, resulting in weight and cost reduction in addition to the remarkable improvement in the detection limit from the ppm levels to the ppb levels.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 16,2016

Skeleton Technologies secures €3.5 million agreement for its graphene-based supercapacitor technology to be used in road freights

Skeleton Technologies has signed a €3.5 million distribution agreement with French transport tech developer Adgero, that ensures modules from Skeleton Technologies be part of the world’s first Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) for road freight. Under the agreement, Adgero will source SkelMod 160V modules exclusively for the Adgero hybrid system pioneered to increase efficiency for the truck transport industry.

The Adgero KERS system is scheduled to be road tested next month by leading UK transport company, Eddie Stobart, ahead of Adgero’s expected series production this year. The truck company will test the KERS system in a curtainsider trailer – built by one of the largest manufacturers in Europe, SDC Trailers – and unveiled at the Commercial Vehicle Show in Birmingham later this month.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 14,2016

Haydale reports on a biocompatible graphene ink for gravure printing of biosensors

Haydale recently reported on a presentation given at the recent Advanced Functional & Industrial Printing 2016 meeting that describes the development of roll-to-roll gravure printing of biosensors based on electrically conductive graphene structures and adherence proteins.

The described development was a result of a project undertaken by a consortium of organizations lead by the Frauhofer Institut fur Biomedizinische Technik (IBMT) and involving Haydale in the development of biocompatible and electrically conductive graphene ink suited for gravure printing. The next stage of this project is to validate the performance of the biosensors in a series of target applications.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 14,2016

Carbyne was made for the first time - said to be stronger than graphene

Scientists at the University of Vienna in Austria have managed to synthesize carbyne for the first time. Carbyne has been theorized in the past, and said to be stronger than graphene and posses other intriguing properties. However, this is the first time that a stable form was actually made.

Creating a stable form was technically difficult because carbyne is composed of a long one-dimensional chain of carbon atoms linked one to the other. To do this, the scientists took two sheets of graphene and rolled them together and then used this stable superstructure to fashion the carbyne. The new structure is 6,400 atoms long and the material's potential applications will need to be explored.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 14,2016

Garmor announces electrically conductive composite for use in energy storage and electronic applications

Garmor, a graphene technology provider and developer of advanced customer-driven applications, has developed graphene-based composites ideal for high-volume electronic and energy storage applications. By leveraging inexpensive manufacturing methods to produce few-layer graphene oxide (GO) along with innovative composite compression molding processes, Garmor produced compression-moldable GO-composites that can be shaped and stamped into almost any form factor. Garmor is currently establishing strategic business relationships to deploy this technological advancement in applications focused on energy production and storage.

These composites exhibit nearly isotropic electrical conductivity exceeding 1,000 S/cm delivering a unique, omnidirectional conductive substrate. Equally impressive is that these GO-enhanced materials include a polymeric resin that is inherently chemically resistant and allows for increased lifetime even in harsh operating environments.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 13,2016

New approach to creating more responsive graphene-based photodetectors

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated a new approach to modifying the light absorption and stretchability of 2D materials by surface topographic engineering using only mechanical strain. The highly flexible system has future potential for wearable technology and integrated biomedical optical sensing technology when combined with flexible light-emitting diodes.

The researchers state that this is the very first stretchable photodetector based exclusively on graphene with strain-tunable photoresponsivity and wavelength selectivity; Increasing graphene's low light absorption in visible range is an important prerequisite for its broad potential applications in photonics and sensing. The key element enabling increased absorption and stretchability requires engineering the 2D material into 3D "crumpled structures," increasing the graphene's areal density. The continuously undulating 3D surface induces an areal density increase to yield higher optical absorption per unit area, thereby improving photoresponsivity. Crumple density, height, and pitch are modulated by applied strain and the crumpling is fully reversible during cyclical stretching and release, introducing a new capability of strain-tunable photoabsorption enhancement and allowing for a highly responsive photodetector based on a single graphene layer.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 13,2016