Researchers are developing flash memory devices that store the charge in nanocrystals instead of the usually used polysilicon layers. These kinds of devices are less sensitive to local defects and offer high-density memory potential. Samsung Electronics in collaboration with Korea's Kyung Hee University) are now developing such flash memory devices based on graphene quantum dots (GQDs).

The performance of such a device is promising, with an electron density that is comparable to semiconductor and metal nanocrystal based memories. Those flash memory devices can also be made flexible and transparent.

In October 2013, Europe launched its ambitions $1 billion 10-year Graphene Flagship research initiative. Back then the project's consortium included 75 partners from 17 countries. Now 66 new partners are joining the program.

These new partners joined following a €9 million competitive call, which is part of the €54 million ramp-up phase in 2014-2015. The project received 218 proposals from 738 organizations and 37 countries. 21 proposals out of those 218 were selected for funding. The project coordinator, theoretical physicist Jari Kinaret at Chalmers University, said that the response for the competitive call was "overwhelming" - a strong indicator of the recognition for and trust in the flagship effort throughout Europe.

Vorbeck Materials announced a new product, the Vor-Power straps, a light weight flexible power source that can be attached to any existing bag and enable it to become a mobile USB charging station. The Vor-Power strap weighs 450 grams and provides 7,200 mAh. And it's probably the world's first graphene-enhanced battery!

The Vor-Power strap is water resistant and can survive a drop of over 24 meters. You can pre-order it now for $89.99 (the regular price, after July 15, will be $129.99). Vorbeck will ship this product by July, and they will also offer custom versions with your logo or marketing message. We should expect more flexible power solutions from Vorbeck soon.

One of the projects that was selected for the 2nd-stage of the EU's Graphene Flagship initiative is the iGCAuto projector, led by the University of Sunderland. This project partners will try and see how graphene and graphene-composite materials an be used in the automotive industry.

The focus of the project will be to find new materials that can make vehicles lighter and safer. The partners (who include Fiat and the Fraunhofer ICT) will investigate different nanocomposites with different polymer matrices.

A few days ago, Qingdao Unique Products Develop showed a huge (12x12 meters!) 3D printer during a trade show in China. Such a printer may be able (in the future) to print complete buildings. According to the reports, this printers uses a printing material which is a fiberglass-graphene composite.

Is this for real? I don't know. We do know that several companies are developing graphene-based 3D printing materials (including Grafoid, Graphene 3D Labs, AGT and Kibaran).

Five years ago, on June 25 2009, I posted the first post on Graphene-Info (a new technique for stamping many graphene sheets onto a substrate at once). I was already interested in graphene for a while then (first hearing about it while working on some OLED news, most likely), but of course it took me a while before I decided to launch this new site.

Back then I didn't think Graphene will take off so quickly. This was before the 2010 Nobel Prize and before most people even heard about graphene. I think I was very lucky to stumble upon this technology so early. Anyway - happy birthday to my own site, and I hope that within the next five years we'll see graphene-enabled products that actually enable us to lead better and simpler lives!