Vol 4 Issue 1

Graphene and 2D materials are still creating scientific progress and the pace is if anything speeding up. You may recall from 2018 that MIT discovered twisted bilayer graphene displayed superconductivity. Andre Geim said this was a genuine surprise when we interviewed him at the Graphene industry showcase event (Vol 4 Iss1 p.8). Well, the MIT team have been exploring this field of twistronics and have now found that using trilayer twisted graphene creates more robust superconductivity at slightly higher temperatures. This points the researchers towards more layers of graphene. Maybe people will start to realise multilayer sheet graphene is much more than graphite. In another development, liquid mercury has been turned into a solid by graphene and the resulting composite has promise for making a new generation of catalysts that could replace more expensive noble metals such as platinum and gold. This finding might also create the possibility to remove liquid mercury contamination from oil and gas processing. Sparc technologies in Australia has some profile this month. They have developed a functionalised graphene with the University of Adelaide. This is showing promise for land remediation and also early work is showing it has some value adsorbing precious metals from mining waste. Sustainability applications like these attract our attention, especially if followed by commercial success. Swedish company 2D fab is working on a project with Swedish research institutes to commercialise a new process for making hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) using graphene paper electrodes. H2O2 is an important industrial product used for bleaching and is an important ingredient in many consumer products. The current process for making H2O2 is energy intensive and creates waste. This new process promises to be lower energy without waste and is more environmentally sustainable. The project should complete by April 2023. Keeping the sustainability theme this month, we also see that the GEIC has started to engage with graphene enhanced concrete, This is really good news. Regular readers will know that we believe graphene in concrete will eventually become the biggest application because it has the potential to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by 2% with very little impact on our lifestyles. A message that perhaps might reach the ears of those attending the UN Climate Chance conference later this year. As usual there is so much more to explore in this issue, including two special features by Debbie Nelson that are well worth reading. Adrian Nixon, 1st March 2021

This month Rob and I gained first-hand experience of the benefits of adding graphene to enhance concrete. We were given a tour of the new Mayfield development in Manchester, UK. The site is still under construction, and parts of it are now open to the public. One of these areas is the new mezzanine floor area directly underneath the old Mayfield rail station. We were standing on what seemed to be an unremarkable concrete floor. It becomes remarkable when you know what to look for. We were lucky to have one of the joint MDs Alex McDermott as our guide. The whole floor was constructed and finished in a fraction of the time it would normally take. Also, the floor is flawless, with no expansion joints or cracking. There is also no sign of shrinkage. We knew graphene-enhanced concrete was strong. Now we know there are other benefits emerging. Graphene is the gift that keeps giving. Graphene-enhanced concrete is being trialled in other parts of the world too. In New Zealand, First Graphene has partnered with a particularly active distributor and trial pours are already underway. In the USA, Debbie discovered that the US Army ERDC also has an active interest in graphene enhanced concrete. They are discovering the same strength and fast cure benefits that graphene confers to the finished construction. You can find out more in her special feature. Battery technology continues to be developed. First Graphene and Zentek have both turned their attention to silicon anodes. Silicon is an attractive material to make Li-ion battery electrodes. The problem is it expands by up to 300% when lithium migrates into the crystal structure during charging. Using silicon particles coated with graphene nanoplates seems to mitigate this problem. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are another two-dimensional (2D) material. Akanksha Urade wrote a good overview of the technology this month, and separately the Graphene Flagship published an overview of their interest in these materials. They have been working on using TMDs as next generation heat pumps. They can be used in heating and cooling applications and also as thermoelectric generators. This work is still at the early stage, however there are well funded teams working in this research area so we can expect to see meaningful progress in the future. Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) graphene used to be talked about in terms of just a research project. Now we know industrial processes can make graphene films by the kilometre and at high speeds. The development of the technology has matured from academia to industrial R&D. One of the companies in Korea, Charmgraphene has now developed graphene separation and transfer technology to the point where they can make freestanding graphene films at square centimetre scale and in thicknesses ranging from three to ten atomic layers thick. You can read about more of the astonishing progress being made in this field by reading this packed issue. Adrian Nixon, 1st March 2022