Graphene composites

NanoXplore has announced that it has been awarded three programs from two existing customers, one large commercial vehicle OEM and one industrial equipment manufacturer, to supply exterior parts of vehicles.  These components are used in both internal combustion engines and electric vehicles.

Production for the first program will begin in 2024 while the start of production for the other two programs is planned for 2026. These programs generally last for a period of 10 years. The Corporation estimates that these programs will generate CAD$24 million (over USD$17,700,000) in annual sales at mature volumes along with a one-time tooling revenue of CAD$10 million (over USD$7,400,000). The Corporation has reportedly already secured the related manufacturing equipment to fulfill these orders and the expansion of the North Carolina facility is ongoing. These investments are part of NanoXplore’s 5-year strategic plan.

HydroGraph Clean Power, a manufacturer of graphene, has announced it is expanding its application development capabilities to meet growing global demand by establishing a partnership with the University of Manchester’s Graphene Engineering Innovation Center (GEIC) commencing in October of 2023. 

This strategic collaboration will aim to significantly enhance and ‘de-risk’ HydroGraph's application development capabilities. The GEIC, formed to commercialize graphene-related technologies and products, specializes in rapidly scaling up applications involving composites, building materials, membranes, inks, and coatings. To support their mission the £60 million GEIC facility was established with significant lab and engineering space that houses state-of-the-art testing and application development equipment, supported by experienced and knowledgeable team. Hydrograph will scale up this critical application development work by leveraging the resources at the GEIC with a team of commercially focused scientists and engineers to support industry adoption of its "99.8% pristine fractal graphene".

Lyten has announced it has raised $200 million as part of its over-subscribed Series B funding round, to scale manufacturing and commercialize its first three product lines: Lithium-Sulfur batteries, lightweight composites, and next generation IoT sensors.

The round is led by Prime Movers Lab, a venture capital firm focused on investments in breakthrough scientific startups and has $1.2B in assets under management. Prime Movers Lab is joined with significant participation from strategic investors and sector leaders Stellantis (previously announced), FedEx Corporation, Honeywell, and Walbridge Aldinger Company. Additional strategic, venture capital and individual investors make up the remainder of the round.

Haydale and PETRONAS Technology Ventures (PTVSB), the technology commercialization arm of Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), have executed a collaboration agreement to functionalize graphene for product applications, in an effort to accelerate commercialization of graphene-based formulations in various different industries.

The agreement, which runs through to 31 December 2025, will see the parties exploring graphene for further commercial applications in battery cells, composites, coatings and thermal materials, among others. The collaboration will also cover knowledge sharing between the parties.

The Graphene Flagship, Europe's $1 billion graphene research initiative, has summed up its progress in advancing graphene-based innovations for automotive in the last ten years. The project examines, among other topics, how graphene can address key challenges in the automotive sector, such as fuel efficiency, recycling, and environmental impact.

Graphene has the potential to drive significant advancements in the automotive industry — from strengthening structural components to improving electrochemical energy storage (i.e., Batteries) efficiency and safety in electric cars as well as enhancing the performance of the self-driving car. The Graphene Flagship has orchestrated a number of projects researching the benefits of graphene in automotive applications and how vehicles can be improved. The Graphene Flagship reports it is now seeing this research and development come to fruition. Listed below are the automotive-related advancements that were achieved.

A team of researchers from Japan's Chiba University, led by Associate Professor Tomonori Ohba and including master’s students, Mr. Kai Haraguchi and Mr. Sogo Iwakami, has fabricated fullerene-pillared porous graphene (FPPG)—a carbon composite comprising nanocarbons—using a bottom-up approach with highly designable and controllable pore structures. 

Separation processes are essential in the purification and concentration of a target molecule during water purification, removal of pollutants, and heat pumping. To make the separation processes more energy efficient, improvement in the design of porous materials is necessary. Porous carbon materials offer a distinct advantage as they are composed of only one type of atom and have been well-used for separation processes. They have large pore volumes and surface areas, providing high performance in gas separation, water purification, and storage. However, pore structures generally have high heterogeneity with low designability, which poses various challenges, limiting the applicability of carbon materials in separation and storage.

Gerdau Graphene has announced that Packseven, one of Brazil’s largest flexible film makers, will be commercializing  what they define as 'the world's first graphene-enhanced stretch film'. It is expected to be made available for sale in Q3 2023.

The new ultra-thin film, developed using Gerdau Graphene’s specialized graphene additive technology, is said to be significantly thinner and more durable: initial testing revealed that the new films could pack 120% more material without breaking compared with comparable flexible films. More durable stretch films reduce consumption of the material per pallet and increase safety in packing and loading. 

Researchers at Queen Mary University, University of Sussex and University of Brighton have integrated graphene into seaweed to create nanocomposite microcapsules for highly tunable and sustainable epidermal electronics. When assembled into networks, the tiny capsules can record muscular, breathing, pulse, and blood pressure measurements in real-time with ultrahigh precision.

The team explained that much of the current research on nanocomposite-based sensors is related to non-sustainable materials. This means that these devices contribute to plastic waste when they are no longer in use. The new study shows that it is possible to combine molecular gastronomy concepts with biodegradable materials to create such devices that are not only environmentally friendly, but also have the potential to outperform the non-sustainable ones.

Researchers from Purdue University have developed patent-pending, solid-state, continuously tunable thermal devices based on compressible graphene foam composites. The devices can dissipate heat, insulate against cold and function across a wide range of temperatures. 

The devices have the potential to improve battery safety and performance in electronic devices and systems like battery thermal management, space conditioning, vehicle thermal comfort and thermal energy storage.

Haydale has announced that it will be a key contributor to Viritech's development of fuel cell hydrogen electric vehicles (FCHEVs).

Viritech, a developer of high-performance hydrogen powertrain solutions for the automotive industry, has secured a major role in Ford Motor Company's three-year hydrogen fuel cell E-Transit trial and Haydale will lead the development of new functionalized materials and resins for Type V pressure vessels to support Viritech's proprietary integrated mounting system Graph-Pro™.