Wuxi JCNO Materials, a company located in the Wuxi Graphene Industry Zone in China, has created a graphene-based electrostatic speaker. The speakers are reportedly constructed using graphene resin composite materials, able to produce medium and low bass sounds that conventional metal resin compounds cannot reach. The graphene speaker is also said to be simpler, longer-lasting and cheaper to produce than traditional technology.
Electrostatic speakers sound by vibrating the diaphragm before and after with the action of electrostatic force. It can capture the extremely small changes in the music signal to fully show the nuances of the music. This kind of speaker has already been used in applications like cars, theaters and exhibitions.
Graphene-based speaker applications have been under development for a while. One of the earlier initiatives in this area was presented in 2011 when researchers from Seoul's National University developed a transparent and lightweight speaker made from Graphene.
In 2013 researchers demonstrated that a graphene-based speaker can outperform even the best commercially-available earphones. Another interesting research was published in September 2016, when researchers at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) developed a new graphene-oxide based thermoacoustic speaker that does not require an acoustic box to produce sound - thermoacoustics is based on the idea that sound can be produced by the rapid heating and cooling of a material instead of through vibrations.
In November 2016 it was reported that Xiaomi's latest Piston 3 Pro earphones make use of a graphene membrane. In that same month, Israeli audio pioneer Waves Audio announced that it is going to develop an innovative electrostatic speaker using a nanoscale active membrane based on graphene in collaboration with the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Also, ORA, a Canada-based early-stage start-up that develops graphene-enhanced audio equipment, unveiled its graphene oxide-based composite material, dubbed grapheneQ.