Graphene is a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb-like pattern. Graphene is considered to be the world's thinnest, strongest and most conductive material - of both electricity and heat. All of these properties are exciting researchers and businesses around the world - as graphene has the potential to revolutionize entire industries - in the fields of electricity, conductivity, energy generation, batteries, sensors and more.

Mechanical strength

Graphene is the world's strongest material, and can be used to enhance the strength of other materials. Dozens of researchers have demonstrated that adding even a trace amount of graphene to plastics, metals or other materials can make these materials much stronger - or lighter (as you can use a smaller amount of material to achieve the same strength).

applications of composites image

Such graphene-enhanced composite materials can find uses in aerospace, building materials, mobile devices, and many other applications.

Thermal applications

Graphene is the most heat conductive found to date. As graphene is also strong and light, it means that it is a great material for making heat-spreading solutions, such as heat sinks or heat dissipation films. This could be useful in both microelectronics (for example to make LED lighting more efficient and longer lasting) and also in larger applications - for example thermal foils for mobile devices. Huawei's latest smartphones, for example, have adopted graphene-based thermal films.

graphene-bulb-demonstration-image

Energy storage

Since graphene is the world's thinnest material, it also extremely high surface-area to volume ratio. This makes graphene a very promising material for use in batteries and supercapacitors. Graphene may enable batteries and supercapacitors (and even fuel-cells) that can store more energy - and charge faster, too.

Graphene battery advantages imageThe advantages of graphene batteries

Coatings ,sensors, electronics and more

Graphene has a lot of promise for additional applications: anti-corrosion coatings and paints, efficient and precise sensors, faster and efficient electronics, flexible displays, efficient solar panels, faster DNA sequencing, drug delivery, and more.

Graphene is such a great and basic building block that it seems that any industry can benefit from this new material. Time will tell where graphene will indeed make an impact - or whether other new materials will be more suitable.

The latest Graphene Application news:

Researchers develop antimony alloy based reduced graphene oxide composite for faster charging sodium-ion batteries

Researchers from the University of Hyderabad (UoH) and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) have developed electrode materials made of Tin antimony alloy based reduced graphene oxide composite which has the potential to enhance energy storage for sodium-ion batteries.

Sodium-ion batteries could offer enhanced energy efficiency, rapid charging capabilities, resilience to extreme temperatures, and safeguards against overheating or thermal runaway incidents. They exhibit reduced toxicity due to their lack of reliance on lithium, cobalt, copper, or nickel, which have the potential to emit environmentally harmful gases in the event of fire, according to a recent official release.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 14,2023

Versarien launches new range of graphene-based compounds

Versarien has announced the launch of a portfolio of graphene and related nanomaterial-based thermoplastic polymer compounds, branded under the name Polygrene. The Company says that the Polygrene line is the culmination of extensive collaborative efforts with the International Institute for Nanocomposites Manufacturing (IINM) at WMG, University of Warwick.

The new range has potential applications across a variety of industries, including sports equipment, construction products, aerospace and automotive components. This versatility showcases the adaptability and strength of the new graphene-infused materials.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 07,2023

Archer Materials demonstrates multiplexing readout for its Biochip gFET

Archer Materials, a semiconductor company advancing the quantum computing and medical diagnostics industries, has demonstrated multiplexing readout for its advanced Biochip graphene field effect transistor (“gFET”) device.

Archer confirmed single-device multiplexing using four advanced gFETs as sensors, which were integrated into the Archer advanced Biochip platform. This is significant as Archer intends to apply its multiplexing capability in the Biochip to test for multiple diseases on a single chip at once.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 03,2023

Researchers suggest a perovskite-graphene device for X-ray detection

Researchers at Graphenea, University of Utah and Kairos Sensors have examined a perovskite-based graphene field effect transistor (P-GFET) device for X-ray detection. 

The device architecture consisted of a commercially available GFET-S20 chip, produced by Graphenea, with a layer of methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) perovskite spin coated onto the top of it. This device was exposed to the field of a molybdenum target X-ray tube with beam settings between 20 and 60 kVp (X-ray tube voltage) and 30–300 μA (X-ray tube current). Dose measurements were taken with an ion-chamber and thermo-luminescent dosimeters and used to determine the sensitivity of the device as a function of the X-ray tube voltage and current, as well as source-drain voltage. 

Read the full story Posted: Nov 01,2023

GMG updates on commercialization progress

Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) has provided a business update on the commercialization progress of THERMAL-XR powered by GMG Graphene.

GMG has announced it has received forward orders of over AU$400k (around USD$255,000) for THERMAL-XR from various distributors and customers worldwide. Most of the value of these orders is conditional on the in-country approval for the THERMAL-XR to be imported from Australia and sold into that country for the product's initial launch.

Read the full story Posted: Oct 31,2023

Researchers measure mechanical stresses and strains in graphene-based supercapacitors

Researchers at Texas A&M University recently discovered that when charging a supercapacitor, it stores energy and responds by stretching and expanding. This insight could be help design new materials for flexible electronics or other devices that need to be both strong and store energy efficiently.

The team measured stresses that developed in graphene-based supercapacitor electrodes and correlated the stresses to how ions move in and out of the material. For example, when a capacitor is cycled, each electrode stores and releases ions that can cause it to swell and contract. According to the team, this repeated motion can cause the build-up of mechanical stresses, resulting in device failure. To combat this, the research looks to create an instrument that measures mechanical stresses and strains in energy storage materials as they charge and discharge.

Read the full story Posted: Oct 29,2023

ONE Condoms launches graphene-enhanced condoms

U.S-based ONE Condoms has launched graphene-enhanced condoms, after nearly a decade of research and development. 

ONE Condoms' website says that "ONE scientists molecularly bonded graphene, the thinnest and strongest material on earth, with Sensatex®, our proprietary, ultra-soft, vegan latex". The Company explained that when bonded together, graphene molecules fill the space between latex molecules, creating a new material that advances thinness, flexibility, and thermal conductivity. 

Read the full story Posted: Oct 18,2023

Researchers develop “quantum ruler” to measure and explore the unique properties of twisted materials

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the U.S, the University of Nevada, George Mason University and Japan's National Institute for Materials Science have developed a “quantum ruler” to measure and explore the unique properties of twisted materials like 'magic angle' graphene. 

The work may also lead to a new, miniaturized standard for electrical resistance that could calibrate electronic devices directly on the factory floor, eliminating the need to send them to an off-site standards laboratory.

Read the full story Posted: Oct 16,2023

Mito Materials Solutions' graphene technology used in new fishing rods by St. Croix Fly

Mito Material Solutions' graphene technology has reportedly been used in fishing rods by St. Croix Fly, a U.S-based company that develops and manufactures fly fishing rods. The new graphene-enhanced line includes Evo and its saltwater-equivalent, Evo Salt, two new premium fly rod designs.

St. Croix’s rods are constructed from SCIII+. Exclusive to the company, SCIII+ is a hybrid carbon fiber material combining high modulus high-strain SCIII carbon fiber and super high modulus SCVI exotic carbon fiber. By itself, SCIII+ carbon fiber is said to produce lighter, more sensitive and better-balanced rods without sacrificing strength or durability. Unlike other fly rods built with pre-applied graphene integrated into carbon fiber prepreg, Evos and Evos Salt are powered by Mito’s functionalized graphene, which is applied in-house at St. Croix at total weight-loading accuracies within 0.01%, delivering radical hoop strength, optimized loop stability and complete accuracy. The process also fits within St. Croix’s vertical-control philosophy, affords extreme consistency and ultimately delivers anglers with more of the benefits graphene can provide — namely faster recovery, increased torsional rigidity and improved strength-to-weight ratios.

Read the full story Posted: Oct 15,2023

Researchers design metal nanocluster/graphene nanosheet composite-based battery separator for stable lithium–sulfur batteries

Researchers from China's Lanzhou University and Japan's Tokyo University of Science have harnessed the surface binding property and redox activity of platinum (Pt)-doped gold (Au) nanoclusters, Au24Pt(PET)18 (PET: phenylethanethiolate, SCH2CH2Ph), as a high-efficiency electrocatalyst in lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs). 

Lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs) can store three to five times more energy than traditional lithium-ion batteries and so they have emerged as a promising energy storage solution. LSBs use lithium as the anode and sulfur as the cathode, but this combination poses challenges. One significant issue is the “shuttle effect,” in which intermediate lithium polysulfide (LiPS) species formed during cycling migrate between the anode and cathode, resulting in capacity fading, low life cycle, and poor rate performance. Other problems include the expansion of the sulfur cathode during lithium-ion absorption and the formation of insulating lithium–sulfur species and lithium dendrites during battery operation.  While various strategies, such as cathode composites, electrolyte additives, and solid-state electrolytes, have been employed to address these challenges, they usually involve trade-offs and considerations that limit further development of LSBs.

Read the full story Posted: Oct 14,2023