Skeleton Technologies, manufacturer of graphene-based supercapacitors, has entered the commercial truck fleet market. The company recently launched a graphene-based device that helps truck drivers start their engines after long periods of inactivity or in cold weather. The system promises to deliver fuel savings, up to 50% extended battery life, faster cranking, reliable starting, well-rested drivers and reduced pollution.

Launched under brand name SkelStart ESM, the device delivers a powerful surge of energy to a truck’s engine to make sure it will start even after long periods of inactivity or in cold weather. The firm explained that it also eliminates the need for drivers to leave their trucks idling. The company explains that the ESM device requires a rather simple installation, and enables truck owners and fleet operators to significantly improve the efficiency of their fleet.

Saab, a global company that provides world-leading products, services and solutions from military defense to civil security, is looking at applying Graphene in signature management – primarily known as detection avoidance. Graphene, in combination with other natural substances, could be used to actively change the shape and topology of all manner of surfaces, including ships, aircrafts and even military uniforms.

In 2014, project funding from Vinnova – Sweden's Innovation Agency – was awarded to investigate the possibility of using graphene in camouflage material. The research project, which is carried out on behalf of Saab with partners including Linköping University, has the aim of creating a graphene composite material with camouflage qualities. Initial tests have begun to apply graphene in the right manner and the end focus is on using techniques and methods suitable for full scale production, enhancing signature management and protecting troops and assets around the world.

Sher-Wood Hockey, maker of ice hockey equipment, is getting ready to launch their new graphene-enhanced carbon fibre Rekker EK60 stick. The Rekker EK60 is scheduled to debut on September 4th 2015, and will be made of an extremely light and strong compound that should help keep it under 400 (385, to be exact) grams and improve upon durability.

In addition, G-RODS (a new American fishing rod company that aims to revolutionize the fishing world by introducing graphene to the industry) is carrying a selection of 55 products, already on the market, all fishing rods, that contain graphene. The rods are claimed to be amongst the best in the world, wielding great power, sensitivity and responsiveness.

The rods are made of a toray carbon fiber-graphene blend, and the graphene is integrated inside each layer of the rod's blank construction to give it tremendous strength (about 30%-50% more strength than a 100% carbon fiber rod). Since some of carbon fiber has been replaced with graphene inside the blank layers, the rods are much lighter, around 30%-50% lighter than rods made with graphite and carbon fiber. Graphene also helps with the rod's flexibility, helping to snap the bend back in place much faster, like a snake. The rods are already available on the company's site and are divided into groups according to the type of fish they are meant to be used on. The price range is around $90-$300.

Scientists from Rice University have managed to embed metallic nanoparticles into their previously-developed LIG (laser-induced graphene, a flexible film with a surface of porous graphene made by exposing a common plastic to a commercial laser-scribing beam), that turn the material into a catalyst for fuel cells and various other applications. The resulting composites contain less than 1% metal and perform as 'super catalysts' for fuel-cell applications. Other methods to do this are much more complicated and require expensive metals and carbon precursors.

The researchers have now found a way to enhance the product with reactive metals and turn it into "metal oxide-laser induced graphene" (MO-LIG), a new candidate to replace expensive metals like platinum in catalytic fuel-cell applications in which oxygen and hydrogen are converted to water and electricity. The scientists state that a major advantage of this process is that commercial polymers can be used, with the addition of inexpensive metal salts. They are then subjected to the laser scriber, which generates metal nanoparticles embedded in graphene. In effect, the laser generates graphene in the open air at room temperature.

Researchers at Michigan Technological University created digital switches by combining graphene and boron nitride nanotubes. The combination of these two materials makes for a workable digital switch, which is the basis for controlling electrons in computers, phones, medical equipment and other electronics. This study is a step forward in making semiconductor-free transistors, bypassing many of the troubles that plague silicon.

The main challenge was fusing the materials together, and the scientists addressed it by maximizing their existing chemical structures and exploiting their mismatched features. The team exfoliated graphene and modified the material's surface with tiny pinholes. Then the researchers could grow the nanotubes up and through the pinholes.

Since the materials are respectively so effective at conducting or stopping electricity, the resulting switching ratio is high. Actually, how fast the materials can turn on and off is several orders of magnitude greater than current graphene switches. In turn, this speed could eventually quicken the pace of electronics and computing.

Graphene Flagship researchers have developed a graphene-based optical fibre laser that emits pulses with durations equivalent to just a few wavelengths of the light used. This is said to be the fastest device ever created, and should be ideal for use in ultrafast spectroscopy, as well as in surgical lasers that avoid heat damage to living tissue.

The Graphene Flagship researchers' setup was based only on standard telecommunications equipment, with a saturable absorber based on a composite of graphene and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fabricated by low-cost solution processing, with the graphene flakes exfoliated from bulk graphite by ultrasonic agitation of the solution. Evaporation leaves behind a 50 micron-thick graphene-PVA composite, which is then sandwiched between fibre connectors. This setup enabled the generation of 29 femtosecond pulses, which corresponds to fewer than six cycles at a wavelength of 1.5 microns. Compensating for higher-order nonlinear and dispersive effects should lead to a shorter pulse length, and the use of a higher power diode, or a double-pumped configuration, could result in higher bandwidth pulses as well as increased output power. Finally, the addition of photonic crystal fibres could in principle allow for the generation of similarly short laser pulses at other wavelengths.