Monthly Archive, August 2019 - Page 1

Riptron, a spin-out company from the University of Manchester, has entered a partnership with China-based Tunghsu Optoelectronics to advance graphene sensors designed to measure the quality of air. The graphene-based sensors are expected to enter mass production shortly following the partnership between the two companies.

In this context, Riptron will secure around £1 million investment over two stages from Tunghsu Optoelectronics.

Researchers from Northwestern University have recently shown that graphene oxide “paper” can be made by mixing strong, solid GO flakes with weak, porous GO flakes. This finding may aid the production of higher quality GO materials, and also sheds light on a general problem in materials engineering: how to build a nano-scale material into a macroscopic material without losing its desirable properties.

Large single layers of GO wrinkle easily, leaving breakable gaps. Small, hard flakes don’t integrate well. image by Northwestern

“To put it in human terms, collaboration is very important,” said Jiaxing Huang, Northwestern Engineering professor of materials science and engineering, who led the study. “Excellent players can still make a bad team if they don’t work well together. Here, we add some seemingly weaker players and they strengthen the whole team.”

Researchers from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and Yale University in the U.S have reported on a novel device architecture comprising graphene Schottky diode varactors. The team assessed that such devices have great potential for optoelectronics applications.

graphically illustrated edge contact image

The team has shown that graphene varactor diodes exhibit significant advantages compared with existing graphene photodetectors, including elimination of high dark currents and enhancement of the external quantum efficiency (EQE).

Researchers at Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) have developed a graphene-based technology that can obtain high-resolution, micrometer-sized images for mass spectrometric analysis without sample preparation. DGIST Research Fellow Jae Young Kim and Chair-professor Dae Won Moon's team succeeded in developing the precise analysis and micrometer-sized imaging of bio samples using a small and inexpensive laser.

Due to its ability to obtain high-resolution mass spectrometric images without an experimental environment using a 'continuous wave laser,' the technology is expected to be applied widely in medicine and medical diagnosis fields.