January 2023

Researchers from Graphenea, Ikerbasque, BCMaterials, Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials (CIC biomaGUNE) of the Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), University of the Basque Country UPV-EHU, University of Trieste and Universidade da Coruña recently reported a graphene field effect transistors (GFET) array biosensor for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, using the human membrane protein involved in the virus internalisation: angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).

By finely controlling the graphene functionalization, by tuning the Debye length, and by deeply characterizing the ACE2-spike protein interactions, the team managed to detect the target protein with an extremely low limit of detection (2.94 aM).

Researchers at MIT and National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan, have found a new and intriguing property of “magic-angle” graphene: superconductivity that can be turned on and off with an electric pulse, much like a light switch.

The discovery could lead to ultrafast, energy-efficient superconducting transistors for neuromorphic devices — electronics designed to operate in a way similar to the rapid on/off firing of neurons in the human brain.

In November 2022, Applied Graphene Materials (AGM) announced that it aimed to raise money to fund its operations, but was unable to do so. AGM Later said it received non-binding indicative proposals for its sale.

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AGM now announced that trading in its shares will be suspended from next Wednesday (February 1st) as the company confirmed it will not publish its reports by the market deadline. The company has until the end of February before it runs out of money.

Researchers from Penn State and University of Electronic Science and Technology of China recently enhanced their gas sensor manufacturing process through an in situ laser-assisted manufacturing approach, improving on their previous method of drop casting (dropping materials one by one onto a substrate using a pipette. 

Flexible gas sensors can be used as medical devices to identify health conditions by detecting oxygen or carbon dioxide levels in the breath or sweat. They are also useful for monitoring air quality in indoor or outdoor environments by detecting gas, biomolecules and chemicals. 

We're happy to announce the tenth edition of Graphene-Info's very own Graphene Handbook, the most comprehensive resource on graphene technology, industry and market - now updated for 2023. Get your copy now to stay current on graphene research, development and market!

Reading this book, you'll learn all about:

• The properties of graphene
• Different production methods
• Possible graphene applications
• The latest graphene research
• The current market for graphene materials and products
• The main graphene challenges
• Other promising 2D materials

The book also provides:

• A history of graphene developments
• A graphene investment guide
• An introduction to graphene metrology and standardization
• A comprehensive list of graphene companies
• A guide to other carbon allotropes

The graphene handbook has been read by leading material engineers, business developers, researchers, equipment vendors, private investors and others who wish to learn more about graphene today and in the future. We truly believe that it is the best introduction to graphene!

Bio Graphene Solutions (BGS) recently announced the development of its first graphene-enhanced product for the concrete market. 

Leveraging its capability of converting 100% organic materials into high-quality graphene via a patented cleantech process, BGS has developed a strength performance admixture for commercial concrete mix designs. 

Liquid metal catalysts have recently been attracting attention for synthesizing high-quality 2D materials facilitated via the catalysts’ perfectly smooth surface. However, the microscopic catalytic processes occurring at the surface are still largely unclear because liquid metals escape the accessibility of traditional experimental and computational surface science approaches. 

An EU-funded collaboration of researchers that included teams from Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, The European Synchrotron- ESRF, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Aarhus University,  Leiden University and Université Grenoble Alpes used novel in situ and in silico techniques to achieve an atomic-level characterization of the graphene adsorption height above liquid Cu, reaching quantitative agreement within 0.1 Å between experiment and theory.

Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) and Toshiba Corporation recently demonstrated how graphene-based olfactory sensors could detect odor molecules depending on the design of peptide sequences. They showed that graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs) functionalized with designable peptides could be utilized to develop electronic devices that imitate olfactory receptors and then emulate the sense of smell by selectively detecting odor molecules.

Olfactory sensing is an integral part of many industries like food, cosmetics, healthcare, and environmental monitoring. Currently, most commonly utilized methods for detecting and evaluating odor molecules is called gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). While GC–MS is effective, it has certain limitations like confined sensitivity and heavy setup. As a result, researchers are in the search of user-friendly and highly sensitive alternatives.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) houses a room-sized electromechanical machine called the NIST-4 Kibble balance. The instrument can already measure the mass of objects of roughly 1 kilogram as accurately as any device in the world. But now, NIST researchers have used graphene to further improved their Kibble balance’s performance by adding to it a custom-built device that provides an exact definition of electrical resistance.

The device is called the quantum Hall array resistance standard (QHARS), and it consists of a set of several smaller devices that use a quirk of quantum physics to generate extremely precise amounts of electrical resistance. The improvement should help scientists use their balances to measure masses smaller than 1 kilogram with high accuracy, something no other Kibble balance has done before.

Researchers from China's Xi’an Polytechnic University, Tsinghua University, Chinese Academy of Sciences CAS) and Shaanxi Textile Research Institute have found that breathable electrodes woven into fabric used in fire suits have proven to be stable at temperatures over 520ºC. At these temperatures, the fabric is found to be essentially non-combustible with high rates of thermal protection time at the maximum values recorded so far for such technology at 18.91 seconds.

The results show the efficacy and practicality of Janus graphene/poly(p-phenylene benzobisoxazole), or PBO, woven fabric in making firefighting “smarter”, with aims to manufacture products on an industrial scale that are flame-retardant but also intelligent enough to warn the firefighter of increased risks while facing flames.