March 2023

NanoXplore and Martinrea International, a global automotive supplier engaged in the design, development and manufacturing of highly engineered, value-added Lightweight Structures and Propulsion Systems, through its subsidiary, Martinrea Innovation Developments, have announced NanoXplore's purchase of Martinrea Innovation's 50% equity stake in VoltaXplore.

NanoXplore now owns 100% of the equity and intellectual property in VoltaXplore and Martinrea has increased its existing equity position in NanoXplore from 21.1% to 22.7%. VoltaXplore was formed as a joint venture between NanoXplore and Martinrea in 2021 to collaborate on developing graphene-enhanced Li-ion battery cells for electric vehicles and grid storage and to explore the potential to build a battery gigafactory. NanoXplore will seek to finance the battery gigafactory within VoltaXplore.

LayerOne (formerly  Abalonyx) and SINTEF  (a Norway-based research institute) have secured funding from The Norwegian Research Council for the development of innovative, scalable and sustainable conductive inks based on reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The rGO-based inks promise improved electrical conductivity and stability surpassing traditional carbon-based inks and offering a less toxic and more cost-effective alternative to metal-based inks.

The research project is a result of LayerOne’s recent breakthrough in developing a new grade of rGO with an electrical conductivity two orders of magnitude greater than standard rGO grades. In the project, LayerOne will supply the advanced rGO materials while SINTEF will leverage and build on its experience from recently concluded projects on printed electronics to develop the new conductive inks.

Versarien has stated that it will require further funding to support its activities as it continues to face a number of challenges. However, the Company said it has the potential to deliver significant returns from the commercialization of its technology and expects to overcome the challenges and successfully commercialize its significant technology base.

Versarien's Board is evaluating options for divestment of its mature businesses, which are no longer core activities, to focus solely on exploiting graphene technology. In addition, the Board is reviewing its overseas operations in Spain and South Korea. The Company noted that significant cost reductions have already occurred, and non-executive directors have agreed to waive any remuneration from the company indefinitely. The executive directors' pay is also being reviewed. Despite these cost reductions, as abovementioned, the Company will require further funding to support its activities, and the Board is evaluating all appropriate options.

Black Swan Graphene and Nationwide Engineering Research and Development (“NERD”) have announced a strategic partnership being embedded in a fully integrated supply chain which will include Arup Group Limited, a multinational engineering consultancy headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with 18,000 experts working across 140 countries.

At the core of the partnership between Black Swan and NERD, is the completion of an equity swap where each company will own approximately five percent (5%) of the outstanding shares of the other, and the execution of a supply agreement between the two companies under which NERD will be sourcing its graphene requirements from Black Swan.

Gerdau Graphene, a nanotechnology company focused on the production, development, and commercialization of graphene-enhanced materials for industrial applications, has announced that it has landed the first sales of its graphene-enhanced Poly-G PE-07GM polyethylene masterbatch. The additive is suitable for the production of films, profiles, and sheets formed through the extrusion processes. 

The new thermoplastic products created using Poly-G PE-07GM are said to be stronger and offer greater overall performance while costing less to manufacture and producing significantly less waste across the value chain. Poly-G PE-07GM was piloted in a series of industrial applications within Gerdau’s factories before
commercialization, including as a film for construction nail packaging. Gerdau found that by using the new, 25% thinner graphene-enhanced plastic film, far fewer nails perforated the packaging. As a result, Gerdau reported a 39% reduction in the volume of discarded damaged packaging and a 7% increase in
film productivity.

Graphene-Info is happy to give the stage to talented young graphene researchers, especially those with such commitment and passion as Dr. Maria Giovanna Pastore Carbone, who has agreed to chat with us and answer a few questions about her background, work and collaboration with the Graphene Flagship.

Maria-Giovanna (right) in the lab at FORTH, with collaborator Christos Pavlou

Dr. Maria Giovanna Pastore Carbone is an Italian Materials Engineer, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH/ICEHT). She has been working on graphene since 2015 and has joined the Graphene Flagship in 2017. Her current research in the framework of the Graphene Flagship project is focused on the integration of graphene and related materials for the development of multi-functional systems (such as lightweight composites for EMI shielding applications and coatings for protection against UV-vis radiation and permeation of gasses/vapors), with emphasis on their structure/property relationship.

Scientists from Imperial College London and Catania University & CNR-IMM have developed a novel graphene ink that can be used to detect a variety of chemical substances when layered on top of commercially available printed circuit boards (PCBs) as a thin film.

In their recent paper, the team demonstrated a novel and versatile sensing platform, based on electrolyte-gated graphene field-effect transistors, for easy, low-cost and scalable production of chemical sensor test strips. The Lab-on-PCB platform is enabled by low-boiling, low-surface-tension sprayable graphene ink deposited on a substrate manufactured using a commercial printed circuit board process. 

Researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) have developed graphene-enhanced biosensor technology that enables the operation of devices, such as robots and machines, solely through thought control.

 The technology has significant potential in fields such as defense applications, advanced manufacturing, aerospace and healthcare. The advanced brain-computer interface was developed by Distinguished Professor Chin-Teng Lin and Professor Francesca Iacopi, from the UTS Faculty of Engineering and IT, in collaboration with the Australian Army and Defense Innovation Hub.

A research team, led by Profs. Chen Wei and Wei Wei from the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (SARI) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed a novel graphene/silicon carbide (SiC) catalyst for efficient CO₂ photoelectroreduction to ethanol (C₂H₅OH).

Using sunlight to produce valuable chemicals and fuels from carbon dioxide (CO₂), i.e., artificial photosynthesis (AP), is a promising strategy to achieve solar energy storage and a negative carbon cycle. However, selective synthesis of C₂ compounds with a high CO₂ conversion rate remains challenging for current AP technologies. The composite catalyst in this work, which comprises SiC substrate, interfacial layer (IL), and few-layer graphene overlayer, can help to achieve the precise control of active intermediates for C-C coupling.

Researchers from the University of Manchester in the UK, Wuhan University and Tsinghua University in China and Kansas State University in the U.S have found that nanoripples in graphene can make it a strong catalyst, contrary to predictions that the carbon sheet is as chemically inert as bulk graphite.  

Led by Professor Andre Geim from the National Graphene Institute (NGI), the researchers found that nanorippled graphene can accelerate hydrogen splitting as well as the best metallic-based catalysts. The findings were unexpected, as previous research predicted that graphene would be as chemically inert as the bulk graphite from which it is obtained. The effect is likely to be present in all two-dimensional materials, which inherently are all non-flat.