Premier Graphene, a global advanced materials company with a focus on research, production and marketing of eco-friendly graphene, has announced achievements in the integration of graphene with construction materials.  

According to the Company, recent in-house studies have showcased the high quality of graphene-enhanced hydraulic concrete. The findings reportedly point to an unparalleled improvement in the cement’s performance, leading to products of superior quality concrete. This graphene-infused cement exhibits enhanced resistance and strength, alongside quicker drying times, which collectively contribute to considerable cost savings on large-scale construction projects.

Researchers from the University of Göttingen, Japan's National Institute for Materials Science and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have demonstrated experimentally that electrons in naturally occurring double-layer graphene move like particles without any mass, in the same way that light travels. Furthermore, they have shown that the current can be "switched" on and off, which has potential for developing tiny, energy-efficient transistors. 

Among its many unusual properties, graphene is known for its extraordinarily high electrical conductivity due to the high and constant velocity of electrons travelling through this material. This unique feature has made scientists try to use graphene for faster and more energy-efficient transistors. The challenge has been that to make a transistor, the material needs to be controlled to have a highly insulating state in addition to its highly conductive state. In graphene, however, such a "switch" in the speed of the carrier cannot be easily achieved. In fact, graphene usually has no insulating state, which has limited graphene's potential a transistor.

First Graphene has announced a third trial with one of the United Kingdom’s largest cement producers, Breedon Group, which will test an optimized formulation of the Company’s PureGRAPH-CEM® product under full-scale production conditions. This trial builds on the work recently conducted in exclusive collaboration with Breedon at its Hope Plant, which confirmed the Company’s ability to produce graphene enhanced cement at an industrial scale.

The third trial incorporates the technical and practical experiences obtained in the first two trials to further optimize the performance of First Graphene’s graphene nanoplatelets. The trial will primarily focus on testing a new grade of graphene, PureGRAPH-CEM®, under full- scale cement production conditions at Breedon’s Hope Cement Works facility in Derbyshire, United Kingdom.

Gerdau Graphene has announced that Brazil has adopted an internationally-recognized industry standard for graphene. The Brazilian standard, published by Brazil’s National Standards Forum (ABNT), is identical to an existing international graphene standard that was developed in collaboration with more than 30 countries, including Brazil, under ISO/TC 229 – Nanotechnologies. The standard aims to characterize the different products that make up the class of materials named graphene, thus contributing to the development of new technologies.

In addition, Gerdau Graphene hosted an international consortium of nanotechnology researchers and industry leaders from April 8-12, 2024, in São Paulo, Brazil. The ISO/TC 229 – Nanotechnologies working groups covered topics related to terminology and nomenclature; measurement and characterization; health, safety, and environmental aspects of nanotechnologies; material specifications; products and applications; and more.

Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS), and Czech Academy of Sciences recently developed a new design concept for creating next-generation carbon-based quantum materials, in the form of a tiny magnetic nanographene with a unique butterfly-shape hosting highly correlated spins. This new design has the potential to accelerate the advancement of quantum materials which are pivotal for the development of quantum computing technologies.

A visual impression of the magnetic “butterfly” hosting four entangled spins on “wings” (left) and its corresponding atomic-scale image obtained using scanning probe microscopy (right). Image credit: NUS

Magnetic nanographene, a tiny structure made of graphene molecules, exhibits remarkable magnetic properties due to the behavior of specific electrons in the carbon atoms’ π-orbitals. By precisely designing the arrangement of these carbon atoms at the nanoscale, control over the behavior of these unique electrons can be achieved. This renders nanographene highly promising for creating extremely small magnets and for fabricating fundamental building blocks needed for quantum computers, called quantum bits or qubits.

Directa Plus has announced the installation of GiPave® at the Imola Circuit ahead of the upcoming Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in May 2024, as part of the Formula 1 World Championship, making it the first circuit to feature green, sustainable and high-tech asphalt utilizing graphene and recycled plastics.

GiPave® was developed by Iterchimica and resulted from a multi-year research program conducted in collaboration with G.Eco of the A2A Group, the University of Milano-Bicocca, and Directa Plus. The product uses graphene supplied by Directa Plus alongside hard-to-recycle plastics, such as certain types of toys, fruit crates, and old CD cases that would not normally be recycled. The asphalt containing GiPave® can itself be entirely recycled, further reducing waste and the need for new materials.

Researchers from Princeton University, University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Japan's National Institute for Materials Science have used a special kind of microscope and two pieces of extremely defect-free graphene to capture the clearest and most direct images of a “Wigner crystal”, a structure made entirely of electrons.

Imaging a “Wigner crystal” is extremely hard. At room temperature, electrons can flow together in electric currents because their kinetic energy overcomes the force that makes particles with the same electric charge repel each other. At very low temperatures, however, repulsive electric forces win out, and the electrons end up arranging themselves into a uniform grid, or a crystal. Physicist Eugene Wigner predicted this phenomenon in 1934, but researchers only recently started to understand how to create Wigner crystals in the lab.