A few days ago, the collaboration between MIT and Lamborghini to develop a graphene-enhanced supercar was talked about all over, and caused great excitement. However, the Graphene-Info team was not satisfied with the scarcity of the details supplied, and approached MIT Professor Mircea Dinca, the spearheads this project.

Prof. Dinca stated that the supercapacitors that are bring developed as part of this collaboration most decidedly do not have graphene in them and are not graphene-enhanced. "In fact, the whole point is that we are not using graphitic materials, which is what most other EDLCs use. Instead, we are using materials known as metal-organic frameworks, some of which have graphene-like (i.e. 2D) structures, but are definitely not made of graphene", Dinca said.

CVD processes are used to create high-quality single layer (also bi-layer and tri-layer) graphene sheets. These kinds of sheets exhibit exceptional properties and can be used in a variety of exciting applications, from touch layers to transistors and sensors. For many years, CVD has been a high cost production process and this graphene is still mostly used in research projects in academic and research institutes, but prices are gradually dropping, to the point where commercial applications are starting to appear on the market.

Recent years have, as we said, brought on a continuing price drop in CVD graphene prices. Spain-based Graphenea, a global CVD graphene leader, has an online shop in which it offers its high-end CVD graphene samples. We have been tracking the prices of Graphenea's CVD graphene since late 2015, and the graph above shows the price decrease.

The National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester has joined forces with the NPL to develop a guide, as part of NPL's good practice guide series, that conveys "a detailed description of how to determine the key structural properties of graphene, so that the graphene community can adopt a common metrological approach that allows the comparison of commercially available graphene materials. This guide brings together the accepted metrology in this area".

The guide, titled Characterization of the Structure of Graphene, follows last month's release of the NPL's work on the first ISO (International Organization for Standardization) graphene standard. It describes the high-accuracy and precision required for verification of material properties and enables the development of other faster quality control techniques in the future. The guide is intended to form a bedrock for future interlaboratory comparisons and international standards.

Raymor Industries recently reported that it secured a $2.3 million (2.9 million CAD) grant from the Canadian government to integrate graphene into lithium-ion batteries. Raymor also manufactures carbon nanotubes for the electronics industry, and its subsidiary NanoIntegris last year launched PureWave Graphene, a substrate-free graphene grown in a plasma reactor, whose specifications are said to approach those of CVD single-layer graphene.

The $2.3 million in Sustainable Development Technology Canada funding will help the company accelerate its research and development efforts on the project, which has the potential to create batteries that perform better and last longer.

China-based The Sixth Element Materials launched its graphene-zinc anti-corrosion primer back in 2015 together with his partner Toppen Technology, and the company has since performed extensive testing. TSE updates us that the material has now been deployed in China and has been used to cover several bridges and wind-turbines steel towers.

The Sixth Element graphene type SE1132 is added to Toppens 2k-epoxy primer system. TSE says that by adding 1% of graphene, one could reduce the zinc content in current anti-corrosion coatings from ~80% to 25%, and the the corrosion protection time is doubled. Reducing the zinc also means that this solution is less polluting. The main cost savings comes from the prolonged coating life which means that the time between coating renewal (which requires a lot of labor) is doubled.

Dotz Nano will reportedly be delivering microscopic, anti-counterfeiting tags (possibly to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics), as part of the company’s first major order. Dotz Nano will receive $135,000 for an order of blue and green Graphene Quantum Dotz (GQDs) to be used for anti-counterfeit printing dyes.

Chief executive Moti Gross said the first major order to Asia would pave the way for greater recognition of the technology. The GQDs bound for the anti-counterfeiting markets are aimed at being used in printing dyes to several companies involved in current anti-counterfeiting mechanisms, several of which, in my opinion, are aimed at the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics, he said.

Teams from the University of York and Roma Tre University state showed that ultra-low-power transistors could be built using composite materials based on single layers of graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC). These materials, they note, could be used to achieve a sought-after electrical control over electron spin.

The teams explained we found this can be achieved with little effort when 2D graphene is paired with certain semiconducting layered materials. Our calculations show that the application of small voltages across the graphene layer induces a net polarization of conduction spins". The team showed that when a small current is passed through the graphene layer, the electrons’ spin polarize in plane due to ‘spin-orbital’ forces brought about by the proximity to the TMDC base. They also showed the efficiency of charge-to-spin conversion can be quite high, even at room temperature.

Researchers at The University of Manchester have fabricated highly sensitive miniaturized pressure sensors using graphene membranes.

The team reported that the new sensor was made possible by developing a way to effectively float a graphene membrane mere nanometers above a silicon chip. When pressure moves this membrane closer to the surface of the chip, the resulting change in capacitance is measured to read out the pressure change. By fabricating thousands of such floating membranes next to each other, a device can be made of exceptionally high sensitivity to pressure changes.

Update: MIT Professor states that these supercapacitors will NOT be graphene-based!

Lamborghini and MIT have announced a collaboration on a 3-year project to develop a graphene-enhanced supercapacitor electric vehicle. The Lamborghini-MIT partnership could, however, end up being extended as there is no target date for the car’s completion.

The planned graphene-enhanced Terzo Millennio ("third millennium") supercar may be a real gamechanger. This concept car is to be a fully electric, supercapacitor-powered automobile that can be charged in minutes with no bulky battery. It will reportedly be "covered in a sheet of graphene", but this description does not sound extremely accurate... We will have to wait for further information on this project.

Zenyatta Ventures has announced the commencement of a collaborative research project with Dr. Takashi Kuboki at Western University to develop an advanced plastic (polymer composite) using Zenyatta graphene (or graphene-oxide) derived from Albany high-purity graphite deposit.

Zenyatta sees a potential for such enhanced polymer composite materials to be attractive to the automotive, aerospace and construction industries that seek lightweight materials with added strength, electrical and thermal properties. This new project may expand Zenyatta's business opportunities as a graphene nanomaterial supplier for the polymer composite markets.