Versarien has announced a widening loss in the first half of its current financial year.

The materials company's pretax loss widened to GBP 2.1 million (around $2.8 million USD) in the six months to the end of September from GBP 732,000 (about $982,000 USD) loss a year earlier, as revenue dropped by 16% to GBP 4.4 million from GBP 5.2 million.

A few months ago, Paragraf announced the close of its £12.8 million (over $16 million USD ) Series A round led by Parkwalk. Now, the Company added £3.4 million (almost $4.5 million USD) to its series A round, with Draper Esprit joining as significant investor, bringing the total to £16.2 million (around $21.4 million USD).

The additional funding is meant to enable Paragraf to significantly accelerate the delivery of its first graphene-based electronics products to market, transitioning the company into a commercial, revenue-generating entity.

Graphene, despite its excellent mechanical, electronic and optical properties, is traditionally not deemed suitable for magnetic applications. Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) Researchers have now succeeded in synthesizing a unique nanographene predicted in the 1970s, which conclusively demonstrates that carbon in very specific forms has magnetic properties that could permit future spintronics applications.

Depending on the shape and orientation of their edges, graphene nanostructures (also known as nanographenes) can have very different properties. Together with colleagues from the Technical University in Dresden, Aalto University in Finland, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz and University of Bern, Empa researchers have succeeded in building a nanographene with magnetic properties that could be a decisive component for spin-based electronics functioning at room temperature.

Researchers from Israel's Weizmann Institute and the UK's Manchester University have succeeded in imaging electrons' hydrodynamic flow pattern for the first time using a novel scanning probe technique. They have proven the longstanding scientific theory that electrons can behave like a viscous liquid as they travel through a conducting material, producing a spatial pattern that resembles water flowing through a pipe.

The results of this study could help developers of future electronic devices, especially those based on 2D materials like graphene in which electron hydrodynamics is important.

Rumors suggest that mobile giant Huawei, which has already introduced to the market several models of graphene-enhanced mobile devices, will also be using the material in its next major smartphone release - the P40 Pro, the successor to the P30 and P30 Pro. It’s not expected to be revealed until 2020, but it may well include an interesting battery-related breakthrough.

While not official in any way, Huawei may introduce graphene technology to the P40’s battery, increasing the capacity without drastically increasing the volume, and helping to speed up the charging. The battery will reportedly have a 5500mAh capacity, and be equipped with a 50W fast charge system to recharge it in 45 minutes. This will definitely be interesting, and a different use of graphene than the former cooling functions.

The Graphene Flagship has announced the launch of eleven new "Spearhead Projects", each developed to take graphene-enabled prototypes to commercial applications. Now, the Graphene Flagship has committed 45 million Euro to invest in eleven commercialization projects led by key industrial partners in Europe such as Airbus, Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles, Lufthansa Technik, Siemens, and ABB. Notably, the project partners will also co-fund the projects with a further combined contribution of 47 million Euro, showing their interest in the development of graphene-enabled products.

The newly launched projects combine the results of the Graphene Flagship's innovative scientific research with the ambitions of commercial partners for marketable applications. This initiative will bring the number of companies involved in the Graphene Flagship to 78, which makes up nearly half of the whole consortium.

The Graphene Flagship has announced the GICE Spearhead Project - development of a graphene-based thermoelectric ice protection system, that will aim to advance the technology readiness of graphene in such applications.

If ice accumulates on the wings, propellers or other surfaces of an aircraft, control can be dangerously inhibited. Thermoelectric ice protection systems prevent this from happening, using an ultra-thin conductive coating layer to generate heat when current is applied. The GICE project will attempt to use graphene to improve existing technology for this application.

The collaboration between the University of Manchester and British sportswear brand Inov-8, which started in 2017 and has already produced the G-Series range of graphene-enhanced shoes and a pair of hiking boots which utilize graphene, has now expanded even further.

Since launching in 2008, the X-Talon has been Inov-8’s best-selling off-road footwear collection. Now, the brand announced that they have evolved the range with the graphene-enhanced X-Talon G 235.

Graphene Flagship partners the University of Bologna, Politecnico di Milano, CNR, NEST, Italcementi HeidelbergCement Group, the Israel Institute of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, and the University of Cambridge have developed a graphene-titania photocatalyst that degrades up to 70% more atmospheric nitrogen oxides (NOx) than standard titania nanoparticles in tests on real pollutants.

To address the problem of atmospheric pollution, researchers worldwide are on the hunt for new ways to remove pollutants from the atmosphere, and photocatalysts such as titania are a good way to do this. When titania is exposed to sunlight, it degrades nitrogen oxides which are very harmful to human health and volatile organic compounds present at the surface, oxidizing them into inert or harmless products.

Graphenea has announced the launch of a new product highly flat monolayer graphene. The graphene is grown by CVD on copper thin film on a 2 sapphire substrate. With extremely low roughness that is less than 4 nm, this new product is targeted at applications in photonics, high-performance electronics, magnetic memory, and freestanding membranes.

The product aims to meet wafer-scale integration requirements to build uniform graphene devices in a fashion compatible with current industrial fabrication methods. The flat graphene product is ready to be transferred by electrochemical delamination or dry methods since the sapphire substrate is robust enough to withstand mechanical damage, preventing tearing and wrinkling of the thin Cu sheet. The total wafer thickness is 430 micrometers. Full product information can be found in Graphenea's online store.