Haydale recently announced that it has completed the installation and commissioning of a two-roll lab mill at its site in Loughborough, UK, that will allow Haydale to compound nanomaterials into a range of elastomers, graphene included, which will support customers interested in using nanomaterials in their elastomeric products for a range of property improvements, such as thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity and increased mechanical performance.

The new elastomer mixing capability joins the current elastomer moulding and testing facilities that are already on site at Haydale in Loughborough, UK, thereby bringing in-house the facility for Haydale to serve customer requirements for nanomaterial enhanced elastomer development.

Graphmatech, a Swedish materials technology startup that develops and sells novel graphene-based nanocomposite materials and services, has closed a seed investment round led by ABB Technology Ventures (ATV), the venture capital arm of ABB, and Stockholm-based Walerud Ventures. Three other investors participated in the round.

Graphmatech has invented and patented a technology to ensure the separation of graphene flakes during the graphene production process, called Aros Graphene: a powder that can be dissolved in water, oil, plastics or metals, utilized to coat surfaces or 3D-printed without loss of graphene’s properties.

An EU-funded project called the SGPCM project ("Switching Graphene-plasmon with Phase-Change Materials") is focusing on the unique capabilities of graphene plasmons to transport and control light emissions at spatial scales far smaller than their wavelength. This project is working on developing ways to use graphene efficiently in novel optical technologies with potential applications in medical imaging, biosensing, signal processing and computing.

Plasmons are quasiparticles that form the smallest quantum of plasma oscillations just as a photon is the smallest quantum of light. Graphene plasmons interact strongly with light and can therefore be used to guide it in entirely novel ways, opening pathways to the development of promising new technologies. They can be exploited in countless applications, including for infrared biosensing and absorption spectroscopy to identify the chemical information of biomolecules by detecting their vibrational fingerprints, and for sub-wavelength optical imaging, which enables the imaging of details much smaller than the wavelength of the illuminating light.

BSI, the UK-based standards body and global certification company, has published a new guide to the properties of graphene flakes, PAS 1201. The guide provides an explanation of the physical and chemical properties of graphene flakes, and advice on information manufacturers and suppliers of graphene should give to prospective users.

Dan Palmer, Head of Manufacturing at BSI, says: PAS 1201 sets out the information that any manufacturer or interested party needs to understand about graphene before introducing this material to the manufacturing process. Standardizing the information that is made available about properties of graphene flakes is important in order for the commercial opportunities of graphene in the UK to be realized.

Liquid X Printed Metals, an advanced material manufacturer of functional metallic inks, has announced a collaboration effort with Bonbouton (a company focused on developing thermal sensing applications using a smart textile platform) to build graphene-enhanced temperature and pressure sensors directly on textiles using additive manufacturing techniques.

Through Bonbouton's inkjet-printable graphene technology, licensed from the Stevens Institute of Technology, the Company is developing thin and mechanically flexible sensors for wearable physiology monitoring. This gives consumers wearable personal health options that are unobtrusive, comfortable and attractive, while still enabling the collection of accurate, precise and useful data.

Researchers from the Regional Center of Advanced Technologies and Materials (RCPTM) at Palacký University in the Czech Republic, together with the colleagues from the Institute of Physics (FZU) of the Czech Academy of Science (CAS) and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB) of the CAS, have designed a new way to control the electronic and magnetic properties of molecules.

Traditionally, such a change can be induced by application of external stimuli, such as light, temperature, pressure, and magnetic field. The Czech scientists have instead developed a way to use weak non-covalent interactions of molecules with the surface of chemically modified graphene.

Researchers from Virginia Tech and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have developed a new way to 3D print with graphene. Graphene has previously been used in extrusion-based processes to print single sheets and basic structures at a resolution of around 100 microns, but this latest research shows it is also possible to use a stereolithography-based technique to print pretty much any desired structure down to 10 microns, close to the size of actual graphene sheets. The ability to 3D print functional parts in graphene could benefit many industries and products.

Now a designer can design three-dimensional topology comprised of interconnected graphene sheets, said Xiaoyu Rayne Zheng, assistant professor with the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the College of Engineering and director of the Advanced Manufacturing and Metamaterials Lab. This new design and manufacturing freedom will lead to optimization of strength, conductivity, mass transport, strength, and weight density that are not achievable in graphene aerogels.

The Graphene Flagship was launched in 2013 with the mission to take graphene and related layered materials from academic laboratories to the market, revolutionize multiple industries and create economic growth and new jobs in Europe. Five years later, the Flagship consortium has reported that it successfully completed the Core1 phase and is progressing towards more applied phases. It is reportedly on its way to achieving its objective of developing the high potential of graphene and related 2D materials to the point of having a dramatic impact on multiple industries.

The Reviewing Panel thoroughly examined the results obtained in this Core1 phase and concluded that for many topics, there has been a clear transformation of the activities, moving from individual research projects to genuine collaboration towards larger goals exactly what a Flagship project should aim for. Nearly all milestones and key performance indicators have been met, often exceeding expectations. There are numerous examples of significant scientific and/or technological achievements, with clear progress beyond the state of the art. The Work package on Photonics and Optoelectronics led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Frank Koppens was recognized as one of the closest to being brought into industrial exploitation due to its significant potential for both scientific breakthrough and innovation.

Researchers from ICFO and Yale have used graphene to efficiently detect mid-infrared light at room temperature and convert it into electricity. Detecting infrared light is of major importance for current applications in spectroscopy, materials processing, chemical, bio-molecular and environmental sensing, security and industry since the mid-infrared spectral region is the range where characteristic vibrational transitions and rotational excitations of many important molecules occur.

Schematic of the proposed device, composed of graphene-disk plasmonic resonators connected by quasi-1D graphene nanoribbons

These vibrational and rotational excitations of many molecules, including hazardous and biological molecules, have frequencies that are found in the mid-infrared, which can be monitored by observing the absorption of light in this specific spectral range. However, currently available mid-infrared detectors are very inefficient, except those that can operate at cryogenic temperatures, because they incorporate superconducting elements. Thus, this low temperature limitation is a major drawback in having detectors integrated in devices for consumer products.

Australia-based advanced materials technology company, Talga Resources, has advised that it has signed a Joint Development Agreement with Biomer Technology, a UK-based polymer manufacturing and technology company, to co-develop graphene-enhanced thermoplastics for potential commercialization in the healthcare and coating markets.

This initiative is in the composites sector under Talga’s graphene commercialization strategy. Highlights of the JDA include:

• Creation of new multi-functional thermoplastic polyurethanes incorporating Talga functionalized graphene (Talphene) in Biomer polymers.
• Terms for evaluation, five years exclusive supply in the event of commercialization of products and intellectual property ownership.
• Commercialization of successful products for targeted biomedical and coating applications can be facilitated through Biomer’s existing global-scale commercial clients.