The Graphene-Info newsletter (October 12, 2022)

Haydale Graphene Industries has reported a widened pretax loss for the fiscal year of 2022, reflecting increased costs for sales, marketing, quality and production capability. Haydale's reported pretax loss was of GBP5.2 million ($5.9 million) for the year ended June 30, compared with a loss of GBP3.8 million (around $4.3 million) a year ago.

The Company's revenue totaled at GBP2.9 million ($3.3 million). This represents a robust performance given that fiscal 2021 revenue was mainly boosted by a pull forward of GBP1.2 million ($1.35 million) silicon carbide and a GBP400,000 ($451,000) one-time reactor sale, it added.

An international team of scientists, led by Dr. Marcelo Lozada-Hidalgo based at the National Graphene Institute (NGI), used graphene as an electrode to measure both the electrical force applied on water molecules and the rate at which these break in response to such force. The researchers found that water breaks exponentially faster in response to stronger electrical forces.

The researchers believe that this fundamental understanding of interfacial water could be used to design better catalysts to generate hydrogen fuel from water. Dr Marcelo Lozada-Hidalgo said: “We hope that the insights from this work will be of use to various communities, including physics, catalysis, and interfacial science and that it can help design better catalysts for green hydrogen production”.

An international team, including scientists from DIPC and CFM (CSIC-UPV/EHU) in San Sebastian, CIQUS - Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Czech Academy of Sciences (Prague), Palacký University (Olomouc), Ikerbasque (Basque Country) and CINN (CSIC-UNIOVI-PA) in El Entrego, have demonstrated two chemical protection/deprotection strategies for the on-surface synthesis of graphene nanostructures.

On-surface synthesis is a synthetic approach that differs from standard wet-chemistry approaches. Instead of the three-dimensional space of solvents in the latter, the environment of the reactants in this approach are well-defined two-dimensional solid surfaces that are typically held under vacuum conditions. These differences have allowed the successful synthesis of a great variety of molecular structures that could not be obtained by conventional means. Among the structures that are raising particular interest are carbon-nanostructures with zigzag-shaped edges, which endow the materials with exciting electronic and even magnetic properties of potential interest for a great variety of applications that include quantum technologies.

Talga Group has announced a fund raise of AUD$22 million (around USD $14,000,000). The raise was reportedly oversubscribed and was supported by a range of institutional investors. It and will take Talga's pro forma cash position (before costs) at 30 September 2022 to A$27 million (around USD $17,255,000).

The Placement was jointly managed by Morgan Stanley Australia Securities Limited and Euroz Hartleys Limited, and supported by UK placing agent Longspur Capital Limited.