A team of researchers from TU Delft, led by dr. Farbod Alijani, recently managed to capture the low-level noise of a single bacterium using graphene.

Being able to pick up on the miniscule sounds of bacteria can help track if an antibiotics is working, or if the bacteria are resistant to the antibiotic. Alijani's team was originally looking into the fundamentals of the mechanics of graphene, but at a certain point they wondered what would happen if it comes into contact with a single biological object.

NematiQ, an Australia-based developer of graphene oxide (GO) membranes for water treatment applications, has reported commercial-scale manufacture of an innovative graphene membrane.

Over the last five years, NematiQ has developed a patented, layer-by-layer methodology to produce the graphene membrane. NematiQ has achieved a milestone by producing more than 1,000 meters worth of 1,000-millimetre-wide flat sheet graphene membrane, at speed, on an industrial roll-to-roll coating machine, showcasing its ability to manufacture graphene membrane at a commercial scale.

A team of researchers, led by Professor Sir Andre Geim at The University of Manchester, in collaboration with scientists from Belgium and China, used low-energy electrons to make individual atomic-scale holes in suspended graphene. The holes came in sizes down to about two angstroms, smaller than even the smallest atoms like helium and hydrogen.

The researchers report that they achieved practically perfect selectivity (better than 99.9%) for such gases as helium or hydrogen with respect to nitrogen, methane or xenon. Also, air molecules (oxygen and nitrogen) pass through the pores easily relative to carbon dioxide, which is >95% captured.

Directa Plus has stated that its graphene technology is being used in a newly-launched high-tech range of trail shoes.

Directa Plus said a specially developed graphene membrane is integrated into the lining of the norda 001 G+ Spike high-performance trail shoes, which are now available for consumer purchase.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have recently refined the water desalination process, with graphene nanopores obtained using artificial intelligence.

"The ions are so tiny, and if you want to remove them, you need to either boil, evaporate, and condense the water, or push it through membranes full of very tiny pores," explained Barati Farimani, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. The current desalination and separation process is very energy and time inefficient. To combat this, Barati Farimani and his team have used artificial intelligence (AI) agents to design an improved method in a week that would likely take decades. "Ideally," he explained, "the best membrane should be one atom thick, such as graphene, a single-layer sheet."

Environmental Systems Corporation (ESC) and Evercloak have announced a new CAD$4.6 million (around USD$3.64 million) collaborative project to build up to pilot-scale commercial production of graphene-based membranes. The project will be funded by Next Generation Manufacturing Canada (NGen) from the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada.

"This is a very exciting time for us. This collaboration represents a crucial building block towards net-zero by the year 2030 by reducing energy processes for cleanrooms. We are very excited to work with Evercloak and NGen on this initiative," said Vern Solomon, Founder/ Innovator of ESC.

UK's G2O Water Technologies has reported securing its first commercial contract for the enhancement of water filtration membranes with graphene oxide.

The Company explains that the advantages of using graphene oxide lie in the enhancement of membrane performance, as it mitigates the effects of fouling one of the biggest challenges operators of membrane-based water filtration systems face. With a coating of graphene oxide, successfully developed and piloted by the company in the northwest of England in collaboration with Hydrasyst Limited, operators can improve operational efficiency, reduce energy consumption and decrease chemical usage. It is anticipated that this will extend the lifetime of the membranes, as well as significantly reduce the cost and environmental impact of water treatment.

Ora Graphene, producer of free-standing graphene membranes, has announced the closing of its CAD$3 million (around USD$2.46 million) Seed financing round. The deal was led by Ecofuel Fund along with Export Development Canada (EDC), BDC Capital and certain members of New York Angels. Existing investors TandemLaunch, and BoxOne Ventures also participated in the round. In conjunction with the financing, the company was recently awarded a Sustainable Development Technology Canada grant to explore new areas of graphene applications for its technology.

Ora has produced what it refers to as 'the largest sheets of free-standing graphene demonstrating incredible new material properties for multi-purpose commercial utilization'. GrapheneQ membranes have already been shown to significantly improve sound quality and reduce energy consumption for global manufacturers of consumer electronics, with applications being developed for exciting new markets opportunities.

Trane Technologies’ Thermo King brand has launched a new graphene-based air purification solution for buses that continuously purifies the air while the bus is in operation.

Thermo King says its Air Purification Solution has been independently tested and proven to be 98 percent effective in deactivating certain viruses, including a surrogate for the virus that causes COVID-19.

Scientists at EPFL have developed an energy-efficient graphene-based carbon dioxide filter that can extract carbon dioxide out of a gas mix, to then be either stored or converted into useful chemicals.

Professor Kumar Varoon Agrawal at EPFL's School of Basic Sciences (EPFL Valais Wallis) has led a team of chemical engineers to develop the world's thinnest filter from graphene. "Our approach was simple," says Agrawal. "We made carbon dioxide-sized holes in graphene, which allowed carbon dioxide to flow through while blocking other gases such as nitrogen, which are larger than carbon dioxide." The result is a record-high carbon dioxide-capture performance.