Ionic Industries has announced the conclusion of a takeover of Imagine Intelligent Materials, including plant and equipment, IP and commercial relationships.

With this acquisition, Ionic intends to become a major Australian graphene player, with a portfolio of advanced nano-technologies covering energy storage and sensing applications. Ionic has paid approximately AUD$600k (around USD$434,000) cash and 30 million Ionic shares.

Versarien, an advanced engineering materials group and provider of graphene-enhanced cement admixture, recently announced the launch of its "Lunar" lifestyle pods. Lunar is Versarien's first 3D printed concrete product made with Cementene, Versarien's graphene-enhanced cement.

The launch involved Neill Ricketts, CEO of Versarien, unveiling a building printed with Cementene, at the Company's production facilities in Longhope, Gloucestershire. Known as Versarien Lunar, this is a milestone project for a 3D-concrete printed product with a graphene additive. The versatile pods can be used as an office, studio, gym, or leisure room. The pod's wall design shows the level of detail, flexibility and precision that can be achieved with 3D-concrete printing.

Specialty chemical company, MITO Material Solutions, raised $4.6 million dollars in a funding round that closed in late January. Funding came from a seed extension by existing and new MITO investors such as specialty chemicals solutions provider, Ingevity Corporation, and will be used to expand MITO’s Indianapolis operations, including new lab space for developing industry leading products and new composite material technologies.

MITO’s portfolio of advanced polymer additives includes a proprietary graphene-functionalization technique that creates E-GO, a hybrid polymer modifier currently in production and reportedly in use in several industries. MITO states that its additives enhance fiber-reinforced composites and thermoplastics beyond standard performance metrics and are engineered to integrate into existing production lines at an extremely low concentration with proven compatibility in a variety of material combinations.

U.S-based graphene flakes producer Avadain has announced that it will upscale its environmentally friendly process to mass production as part of a two-year project funded by a $3.77 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST).

We are excited to unleash the Graphene Revolution by making large, thin and nearly defect free graphene flakes available in industrial volumes and acceptable cost, says Bradley Larschan, CEO of Avadain.

Researchers from CNR-IFN, Politecnico di Milano, the University of Pisa, the Graphene Center of Cambridge (UK) and ICN2 of Barcelona (Spain) have shown that the relaxation time of graphene charge carriers can be significantly modified by applying an external electrical field.

Graphene is able to efficiently absorb light from the visible to the infrared through the photoexcitation of its charge carriers. After light absorption, its photoexcited charge carriers cool down to the initial equilibrium state in a few picoseconds, corresponding to a millionth of a millionth of a second. The remarkable speed of this relaxation process makes graphene particularly promising for a number of technological applications, including light detectors, sources and modulators.

Graphenea has released a new product intended to make sensing with graphene easier: The Cartridge S2X, a package that interfaces the graphene microdevice and the electrical equipment used for its readout.

The cartridge has a small cleft onto which to place the GFET die, just below the electronics module with gentle pogo contacts to the graphene chip. The contacts are placed for seamless integration with Graphenea's S20, S21, S20P and S21P graphene chips that are especially designed for biosensing. The design makes use of 8 connections to the chip, including six source electrodes, one drain, and one gate. The pins are routed to a standard 8-pin BNC connector, for an easy and robust link to external measurement equipment.

Researchers from China's Jiangsu University and Changzhou University have developed a non-ceramic solid-state electrolyte based on a graphene oxide (GO) aerogel framework filled with polyethylene oxide.

Li-ion batteries currently perform a key role in electric cars, but contain combustible liquid electrolytic materials which may pose major safety issues. The solid-state electrolyte (SSE) can replace the standard organic liquid electrolyte and is predicted to address safety issues such as leaking, heat runaway, and even explosions during operation.

A recent study has reported the use of human host defense peptide-conjugated graphene quantum dots for the prevention of virus entry into host cells.

Research on the SARS-CoV-2 virus mainly focuses on the spike protein (S1) which contains the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and the binding of this to the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor within epithelial cells enables the virus to enter host cells in humans. This research resulted in the spike protein becoming a target for vaccines that aimed to produce neutralizing antibodies against the S-RBD. But while this concept seemed useful, recent reports have suggested the mutations on the SARS-CoV-2 virus and specifically in the S-RBD, can cause a decline in the level of neutralizing antibodies against the delta (B.1.617.2) variant that may have been produced during a previous infection or from immunization via a vaccine.

Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) has announced that it has entered into a non-binding Letter of Intent with Wood (a consulting and engineering company), with an aim to reach binding agreements for Wood to design and deliver major graphene manufacturing expansion projects.

Wood will support GMG in scaling up and automating its proprietary natural gas to graphene manufacturing process. The parties’ intent is for Wood to become GMG’s engineering, design and construction contractor for GMG’s near and long-term graphene manufacturing facility needs in Australia and overseas.

Two stretches of an Oxford, UK road will be resurfaced with GiPave, a graphene-enhanced asphalt material, to test the benefits of the product which can significantly increase the life of a road.

Marsh Lane in Oxford, which carries around 10,000 vehicles a day along a key city route, will be used for the trial. Half of a 700-metre stretch of the road will be laid with GiPave, while the rest will be resurfaced using conventional asphalt, so that the two surfaces can be compared accurately.