Graphene-Info newsletter

Fisker's new electric vehicle to sport a graphene-based battery

Henrik Fisker, owner of failed automotive venture "Fisker Automotive", recently stated that he plans to launch a new electric car company next year to compete with Tesla. According to Fisker, the new electric cars will be powered by a long-range battery that uses graphene to extend its range and life and reduce charging time. The company is targeting a 400-mile driving range between charges.

It was not revealed who is funding this new California-based venture, called Fisker Inc, and a new battery subsidiary, Fisker Nanotech. In an interview, Fisker said his new company plans a battery-powered model aimed at the Tesla Model S, which is priced at about $65,000. He did not specify when production would begin. A second smaller Fisker electric car will follow, Fisker said, and will target the upcoming Tesla Model 3, which is expected to start at about $35,000.

Graphene coating may solve the glass corrosion problem

Researchers at the Center for Multidimensional Carbon Materials (CMCM) within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), have demonstrated a graphene coating that protects glass from corrosion. Their research has been said to hold potential for solving problems related to glass corrosion in several industries.

The IBS scientists grew graphene on copper and transferred either one or two atom-thick layers of graphene onto both sides of rectangular pieces of glass. The effectiveness of the graphene coating was evaluated by water immersion testing and observing the differences between uncoated and coated glass. After 120 days of immersion in water at 60 C, uncoated glass samples had significantly increased in surface roughness and defects, and reduced in fracture strength. In contrast, both the single and double layer graphene-coated glasses had essentially no change in both fracture strength and surface roughness.

Silkworms were fed graphene and CNTs and yielded super-silk

Researchers at Tsinghua University in China have shown that feeding silkworms mulberry leaves sprayed with an aqueous solution containing a 0.2% (by weight) graphene or carbon nanotubes can result in reinforced silk that could be used in applications like durable protective fabrics, biodegradable medical implants, and wearable electronics.

This carbon-enhanced silk is said to be twice as tough as regular silks, and can withstand at least 50% higher stress before breaking. The team heated the silk fibers at 1,050 °C to carbonize the silk protein and then studied their conductivity and structure. The modified silks conduct electricity, unlike regular silk. Raman spectroscopy and electron microscopy imaging showed that the carbon-enhanced silk fibers had a more ordered crystal structure due to the incorporated nanomaterials.

Graphene-Info's graphene investment forums - join the discussion!

Interest in graphene investment is growing, and our graphene investment guide, which lists over 15 public pure-play graphene companies, is a popular report. While our impartial graphene investment advice may be helpful - we wanted to remind everyone that we also host a graphene investment discussion board.

The forum is open for everyone - to join the discussion simply contact us and we will provide a user name so you can comment and launch new discussions. The key to successful investing is knowledge - and we hope to create a community that shares tips, opinions and news - all focused on graphene investing of course.

New graphene-enhanced products unveiled

The Sixth Element, a leading producer of graphene products based in China, supported its partner Shangdong Hengyu Technology Group, a leading Chinese tyre manufacturer, in developing tyre formulations proving the positive impact of graphene on the performance of tyres as an example for rubber products.

Adding only a very small amount of The Sixth Elements’ SE2430 to the formulations of the tyre tread, the rate of tyre wear decreased by more than 25%, while tear strength was more than doubled. The Sixth Element Materials Technology presented the new developed heavy duty tyre Horizon HD type during the GRAPHCHINA 2016 conference and stated that road testing is almost completed and marketing is tentatively scheduled to start around the end of 2016.

Another graphene-enhanced sporting accessory is developed in cooperation with Applied Graphene Materials, that has announced the supply of its graphene material for use in the production of a range of fishing rods, made by UK's Century Composites. Century has unveiled a new range of fishing rods containing the AGM's GNPs, sold under the brand Graphex.

Exposure Lights, a UK-based company focused on lighting solutions for cycling and outdoor activities, has been showing a graphene-based ‘action camera’ light called ‘Capture‘ at several cycle shows, to complement GoPro type products primarily, but also as a useful multi purpose pocketable light.

The unit is enclosed in a graphene-enhanced polymer casing, where graphene acts as a heat conductor. It is designed to be waterproof, uses a standard GoPro type battery and has the standard GoPro style mount points. The specifications include a 600 Lumens output, 69g weight including battery, Long burn times with adjustable output and the target RSP is £99.99.The aim is for a launch via Kickstarter, as this will help introduce the brand and product to other markets outside of the traditional Cycling and Marine markets. These include areas such as Drone, Camera and Extreme Sports markets.

In a different market than the former products, Vorbeck Materials and Bluewater Defense (a leading manufacturer of protective clothing, uniforms and equipage for the United States Department of Defense) recently exhibited at AUSA 2016 their graphene-enhanced next-gen, high performance wearable antennas for military, tactical and commercial use in apparel and equipment, featuring multiple communication bands including LTE capabilities.

Bluewater and Vorbeck partnered to offer robust, high-gain, low-cost, and discrete conformal printed graphene antennas embedded in military apparel and backpacks. Its reported benefits include:

• Increase existing cell phone coverage by up to 200%
• Significant improvements of upload and download speeds
• Omni-directional coverage through the deployment of an array of antennas
• Supports wide frequency range from 800-3000 Mhz
• Durable, flexible, washable and non-corrosive -- environmentally friendly
• Increased battery life by reducing operating power

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China's Tianjin High-tech Area (THT) will cooperate with Allied Vehicles Group in Scotland, a leading supplier of adapted and special purpose vehicles and the National Institute of Graphene of the Manchester University on the development of graphene-enhanced batteries for new energy vehicles (NEV).

Versarien has announced the successful completion of a grant funded project focused on graphene enhanced carbon fibre composites with the National Graphene Institute (NGI) at The University of Manchester.

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, along with researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Medtronic PLC Neuromodulation, the University of Washington, and Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand, have looked into graphene-based microelectrocorticography (uECoG) arrays, used in neuroscience researcher, searching for possibilities to expand the use of the arrays in areas such as the research of stroke or epilepsy.

Canada-based Elcora Advanced Materials has reported its first shipment of graphene from its 100% wholly owned subsidiary, Graphene Corp. The graphene material, produced from its Canadian plant in Bedford, Nova Scotia reportedly meets all the high-quality specifications as tested by the Centre for Advanced 2D Materials (CA2DM) at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Shanghai’s Baoshan district government, in conjunction with General Electric, Samsung and Sabic, recently launched a 400 million yuan (US$59 million) venture capital fund to support startup companies set up by expats. The fund will invest in the development and applications of new materials, with a special focus on graphene.

Researchers at Rice University have found that layers of graphene, separated by nanotube pillars of boron nitride, may be a suitable material to store hydrogen fuel in cars.

Saint Jean Carbon, a carbon science company engaged in the exploration of natural graphite properties and related carbon products, has announced the development of hybrid graphene sheets with superconductivity.

A team of scientists at Washington University has developed a technique for using sheets of graphene oxide to obtain drinkable water using sunlight; The technique involves heating dirty water to a boil - creating purified steam that can be collected and safely consumed.

Scientists from Seoul National University have developed a graphene-enhanced bio-electric tongue that can successfully identify two taste sensations, sweet and savory. The tongue is reportedly 10-thousand times more effective in sensing "sweet" flavors compared to the human tongue, which means it can potentially be used to develop new food products.

A team of researchers from Italy has created hybrid perovskite-graphene solar cells that show good stability upon exposure to sunlight, while still maintaining an impressive efficiency of over 18% - the highest reported efficiency of graphene perovskite hybrid solar cells to date.