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Zenyatta Ventures has announced the delivery of 10 kilograms of high-purity graphite to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and Larisplast in Israel for the start of the next phase of testing of a pilot plant scale program. The main objective of the pilot plant in Israel is to further test a new concrete admixture containing Albany derived graphene but with a much larger volume of concrete. It shown that Zenyatta’s Albany graphite is easily converted to graphene with significantly higher yields of graphene nano-particles than any other natural graphite types that were tested at BGU.
Zenyatta, BGU and Larisplast have received grant funding from the Canada-Israel Industrial R&D Foundation under the Ontario-Israel Collaboration Program for this pilot scale test. Upon successful completion of testing, an Agreement between the Parties contemplates the formation of a new corporation (Newco) jointly owned (50/50) by Zenyatta and Larisplast for the purposes of marketing this new specialized admixture product. Zenyatta would be the exclusive provider of purified graphite to Newco and any other party working with Larisplast on this technology.
ORA, a Canada-based early-stage start-up that develops graphene-enhanced audio equipment, has unveiled its graphene oxide-based composite material, dubbed grapheneQ. The material was thus named because of its low density and high stiffness, that reportedly allow for louder drivers that have a lower Q resonance, and has been specially designed for use in acoustic transducers.
Loudspeakers work by vibrating a thin diaphragm. These vibrations then create pressure waves in surrounding air that produce different sounds depending on their frequency. The membrane in any speaker can be thought of as a simple harmonic oscillator with an intrinsic mass and restoring force. The heavier the membrane’s mass, the more inertia and sharper resonance it has because of its high Q. The most common way to reduce resonance and broaden bandwidth is to add damping, but this ultimately reduces the efficiency of the driver.
A couple of weeks ago we visited Haydale's headquarters and production floor in Ammanford, Wales, UK. Here are our impressions following this visit, the meeting with Haydale's management and a visit to the production floor and processing rooms.
First of all, let's clear up a common misunderstanding: Haydale is not a graphene producer. It buys graphene materials (from several sources) and uses its proprietary plasma process to improve the materials, make them more uniform in quality and tailor them to specific requirements. Haydale then uses these materials to create intermediate materials - inks, coatings, composite materials (and masterbatches) and 3D filaments. Haydale is working with customers to take these materials and use them in various graphene-enhanced products.
Researchers from Grenoble Alpes University in France have demonstrated (using atomistic calculations) that a lateral electric field can be used to tune the carrier mobility and change the spin polarization of the current driving through zigzag graphene ribbons.
The calculations predict a high variation of the carrier mobility, mean free path and spin polarization in the ZGNRs. It turns out that configurations with almost 100% spin-polarized current can be switched on and off. The researchers say that these effects can be nicely exploited in spintronics devices.
Researchers from Fujitsu present a new novel graphene-enhanced gas sensor device. The graphene has been employed as gate electrode for an n-channel silicon transistor. The researchers report that the sensor exhibits sensitivities that are more than one order of magnitde better than conventional resistivity-based graphene gas sensors - easily detecting 7 ppb of No2.
When the graphene gate is exposed and gas molecules adsorb on the graphene surface, the work function of graphene changes depending on the gas species and concentrations, thus changing the threshold of the silicon transistor. The work function of the graphene-gate can be controlled by intentionally depositing proper doping materials on graphene, changing the threshold by up to 620 mV without degrading the sub threshold properties.
Graphene 3D Lab reported its financial results for Q1 2016, the quarter that ended on August 2016. Revenues in the quarter were $380,000 CAD (down from $540,000 CAD in the previous quarter but up from $4,000 in Q1 2015). The company posted a net loss of $150,000 CAD.
G3L recently announced that it has developed an innovative graphene composite material that was given the trade name "G6-Impact" and a new 3D filament developed from the G6-Impact material.
Today we published a new version of all our graphene market reports. Graphene-Info provides comprehensive niche graphene market reports, and our reports cover everything you need to know about these niche markets. The reports are now updated to November 2016.
The Graphene Batteries Market Report:
The report package provides a good introduction to the graphene battery - present and future. It includes a list of all graphene companies involved with batteries and gives detailed specifications of some graphene-enhanced anode materials and contact details into most graphene developers. Read more here!
Versarien recently announced the purchase of AAC Cyroma, a specialist plastic manufacturer, for about £1.4m to establish a dedicated graphene plastic manufacturing factory. Using Versarien's graphene manufacturing capabilities and AAC Cyroma's knowledge, plant and equipment, the acquisition will aim to enable the company to produce graphene-enhanced products, including automotive-related original equipment.
Versarien also bought The Breakfast Club 2000, a non-trading holding company which owns 85% AAC Cyroma's shares and the remaining 15% was bought from an individual, and together the shares will be admitted to AIM.
In April 2016 Graphene Nanochem announced that it agreed to agreed to restructure its £16 million debt with its Malaysian lenders - and as part of the deal Nanochem will sell its non-core business and exit from low-margin operations.
The company now has published its latest financial results, and said that the restructuring plans are making progress. Trading in its shares is still suspended - until the company can raise more funds. As part of the re-organization plans, Graphene Nanochem will dispose of its platinum subsidiaries to focus on nanofluids (oil field chemicals), water treatment and enhanced building materials.