Graphene 3D Lab announced that it has received and assembled an industrial scale thermoplastic extruder line, to be used in the production of conductive graphene filament. The equipment has a production capacity of up to 10 kg per hour of 3D printer filament and is now operational.

The company also announced signing a contract with U.S based ZeGo Robotics to develop a proof-of-concept 3D printer. The prototype machine, expected within 3 months, will be specifically designed to print with the company's conductive graphene filament and other functionally-enhanced composite materials.

Canada-based Group NanoXplore announced that its new graphene production facility is in full operation. The new plant can produce up to 3 tonnes of graphene GNPs per year, the largest production capacity in Canada and the fifth largest in the world outside of China.

NanoXplore says that their unique process "gently and efficiently" creates pristine graphene from natural flake graphite without creating the crystalline defects that can limit performance. The company's process also functionalizes the graphene material during production making subsequent mixing with a broad range of industrial materials simple and efficient. The company makes several standard grades of graphene and also derivative products such as a unique graphite-graphene composite suitable for anodes in Li-ion batteries.

NanoXplore also raised $2.18 million to accelerate their sales effort in non-brokered private placement financing.

The Spanish car company Spania GTA announced the unveiling of its 925 hp model's latest evolution - a super-sportscar with a chassis and bodywork that have been created using graphene with carbon fibre, titanium and Kevlar. The car will be presented in the 85th Geneva International Motor Show from 5th to 15th of March under the name GTA Spano.

The car was enabled by a collaboration between Spania GTA and the Spanish Graphenano. The GTA Spano will be the first car in the world to incorporate this technology into several of its components. The car will be of a limited production line with only 99 cars planned for release.

Researchers at the University of Manchester (led by Novoselov, one of the original isolators of graphene and Nobel winner) and University of Sheffield have developed a prototype of a semi-transparent graphene-based LED device that could lay the foundation for flexible screens, to be used in next-gen mobile phones, tablets and TVs.

This extremely thin display (about 10-40 atoms thick) was created using sandwiched "heterostructures" and emits a sheet of light across its entire surface.The 2D LED comprises of metallic graphene, hexagonal boron nitride and various semiconducting monolayers. This prototype shows that graphene (combined with other flexible 2D materials) is not just limited to simple electronic displays, but could be exploited to create light emitting devices that are thin, flexible, semi-transparent and intrinsically bright.

Haydale announced its intention to enter a collaborative agreement with Alex Thomson Racing the HUGO BOSS sponsored extreme sailing team. Haydale, through its newly acquired subsidiary EPL Composite Solutions Limited, will work with ATR to incorporate graphene enhanced materials in their Research and Development program to improve overall strength and stiffness of a number of key structures within the ATR boat. Through incorporating new graphene enhanced materials in their future boat designs - ATR is seeking to keep vessels light to ensure optimum speed without compromising on strength.

In addition to the obvious opportunity to improve overall strength and stiffness, the teams plan a review of bearings and friction points plus critical areas such as delamination of materials and thermal heat management. Under the terms of this agreement Haydale will seek project funding for longer term assignments such as the inclusion of Haydale graphenes into barrier films and coatings and to investigate how these coatings could improve the ATR boat performance.

Global security and aerospace company Lockheed Martin is testing nanofilters using its patented Perforene (graphene sheets with precisely sized holes as small as 1 nanometer meant for water desalination) for oil and gas industry wastewater management.

Lockheed Martin is working with two firms in the oil and gas industry to assess the feasibility of using Perforene filters to clean drilling wastewater. The aim is not the total elimination of contaminants but targeting the worst of them, making the problem more manageable. This goal only requires 50-100 nanometer sized holes, compared to 1 nanometer holes required for desalination and so it is easier to achieve.

In December 2014, Rice University researchers used their previously designed LIG process to produce 3D supercapacitors. The scientists made supercapacitors with laser-induced graphene on both sides of a polymer sheet. The sections were stacked with solid electrolytes in between, to get a multilayer construct with multiple micro-supercapacitors.

The researchers report that the flexible stacks show excellent energy-storage capacity and power potential and can be scaled up for commercial applications. While lithium-ion batteries can store more energy, LIG supercapacitors (of the same size) boast three times the power performance (speed of energy flow). On top of a ll that, the LIG supercapacitors are also flexible and produced in open air at room temperature without the need of a clean room. The LIG supercapacitors are hoped to be highly beneficial for flexible electronics and various wearable applications.

Scientists at the University of Manchester found that graphene oxide may act as an anti-cancer agent that selectively targets cancer stem cells (CSCs). In combination with existing treatments, this could eventually lead to tumor shrinkage as well as preventing the spread of cancer and its recurrence after treatment.

The team prepared a variety of graphene oxide formulations for testing against six different cancer types - breast, pancreatic, lung, brain, ovarian and prostate. The flakes inhibited the formation of tumor sphere formation in all six types, suggesting that graphene oxide can be effective across a large number of different cancers, by blocking processes which take place at the surface of the cells. The researchers suggest that this may deliver a better overall clinical outcome when used in combination with conventional cancer treatments.

A team of international researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory examined the properties of materials that combine graphene with a common type of semiconducting polymer and found that a thin film of the polymer transported electric charge better when grown on a single layer of graphene than it does when placed on a thin layer of silicon.

The scientists claim that their study is one of the first to measure the charge transport in these materials in the vertical direction – the direction that charge travels in organic photovoltaic devices like solar cells or in light-emitting diodes. A somewhat surprising result of the study was that a polymer film about 50 nanometers thick conducted charge about 50 times better when deposited on graphene than the same film about 10 nanometers thick. The team concluded that by better controlling the thickness and crystalline structure of the semiconducting film, it may be possible to design even more efficient graphene-based organic electronic devices and benefit areas like next-generation photovoltaic devices and flexible electronic devices.

Make sure to read our latest article on graphene inks, an interesting use of graphene with many possibilities that is worth learning more about. This article is a Graphene-Info independent piece, especially designed to provide an introduction to the application and an informative market status.

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