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Now the research team — including Justin Wright, doctoral student in physics, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania — is working to improve the quality of the graphene and scale the laboratory process to an industrial level. They are upgrading some of the equipment to make it easier to get graphene from the chamber in seconds — rather than minutes — after the detonation. Accessing the graphene more quickly could improve the quality of the material, Sorensen said.
First use of graphene to detect cancer cells December 19, 2016, by Bill Burton news.uic.edu
What can’t graphene do? You can scratch “detect cancer” off of that list.
By interfacing brain cells onto graphene, UIC researchers have shown they can differentiate a single hyperactive cancerous cell from a normal cell, pointing the way to developing a simple, noninvasive tool for early cancer diagnosis.
“This graphene system is able to detect the level of activity of an interfaced cell,” said Vikas Berry, associate professor and head of chemical engineering, who led the research along with Ankit Mehta, assistant professor of clinical neurosurgery in the UIC College of Medicine.
“Graphene is the thinnest known material and is very sensitive to whatever happens on its surface,” Berry said. The nanomaterial is composed of a single layer of carbon atoms linked in a hexagonal chicken-wire pattern, and all the atoms share a cloud of electrons moving freely about the surface.
“The cell’s interface with graphene rearranges the charge distribution in graphene, which modifies the energy of atomic vibration as detected by Raman spectroscopy,” Berry said, referring to a powerful workhorse technique that is routinely used to study graphene.
The atomic vibration energy in graphene’s crystal lattice differs depending on whether it’s in contact with a cancer cell or a normal cell, Berry said, because the cancer cell’s hyperactivity leads to a higher negative charge on its surface and the release of more protons.
“The electric field around the cell pushes away electrons in graphene’s electron cloud,” he said, which changes the vibration energy of the carbon atoms. The change in vibration energy can be pinpointed by Raman mapping with a resolution of 300 nanometers, he said, allowing characterization of the activity of a single cell.
The study, reported in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, looked at cultured human brain cells, comparing normal astrocytes to their cancerous counterpart, the highly malignant brain tumor glioblastoma multiforme. The technique is being studied in a mouse model of cancer, with results that are “very promising,” Berry said. Experiments with patient biopsies would be further down the road.
“Once a patient has brain tumor surgery, we could use this technique to see if the tumor relapses,” Berry said. “For this, we would need a cell sample we could interface with graphene and look to see if cancer cells are still present.”
The same technique may also work to differentiate between other types of cells or the activity of cells.
“We may be able to use it with bacteria to quickly see if the strain is Gram-positive or Gram-negative,” Berry said. “We may be able to use it to detect sickle cells.”
Last year, Berry and other coworkers introduced nanoscale ripples in graphene, causing it to conduct differently in perpendicular directions, useful for electronics. They wrinkled the graphene by draping it over a string of rod-shaped bacteria, then vacuum-shrinking the germs.
“We took the earlier work and sort of flipped it over,” Berry said. “Instead of laying graphene on cells, we laid cells on graphene and studied graphene’s atomic vibrations.”
Co-authors on the study are Bijentimala Keisham and Phong Nguyen of UIC chemical engineering and Arron Cole of UIC neurosurgery.
Hi-Tech Machine Enables new Graphene Purification Technique
A revolutionary machine that can unboil an egg is being used to develop graphene purification technology.
Researchers from Flinders University in South Australia along with Western Australian company First Graphite Ltd will use the dynamic Vortex Fluidic Device (VFD) to produce high-quality graphene for industrial use.
already up over 300% this week on official Panasonic order -------
Saint Jean Carbon Inc. Ranked Top Technology Breakout Candidate
At the forefront of the next generation of batteries, able to refine graphite to atomic and near-atomic levels.
NEW YORK, NY, USA, January 23, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Market Equities Research Group is responsible for the content of this release. Saint Jean Carbon Inc. is a budding technology company specializing in technological innovation and applications surrounding the refinement of graphite to atomic and near-atomic levels. The Company is the subject of a Market Equities Research Group Market Bulletin, full copy of which is available from source at marketequitiesresearch.com online.
Panasonic is continually pushing the technological envelope and looking to upset the apple-cart; it is Panasonic that Tesla relies upon as the exclusive supplier of batteries for the Tesla Model S, Model X, and upcoming mass-market Model 3. The apparent connections and possible fit between Panasonic/Tesla with the innovation, personnel, and announcements coming out of Saint Jean Carbon Inc. is getting difficult to ignore.
Saint Jean Carbon has transitioned from being a commodity junior miner to one of the most advanced graphene technology companies in North America by partnering with some of the top research facilities in the world, attracting highly skilled technical talent, and in the process facilitating an array of intellectual property that appears poised to reap huge gains for shareholders. Saint Jean Carbon recently appointed as Chief Technology Officer the top Li-ion battery expert in the world, Dr. Zhongwei Chen PhD, MSChE, BS, -- we note a person of his calibre has his choice of entities to associate with, the fact he has chosen Saint Jean Carbon adds to our level of confidence that the Company is on a pathway to becoming an integral participant in the electric vehicle and energy storage sectors.
The Company has been commissioned to build the first high speed commercial graphite shaping and carbon coating mill in North America. The mill will grind, size, shape and coat graphite for the lithium-ion battery industry for use in electric cars and bulk energy storage -- Saint Jean Carbon Inc. is bound by confidentiality and non disclosure agreements from saying with who, but most people looking at their specifications of material are logically immediately able to take the leap and say its Tesla. The Company's proprietary Spherical Carbon Coated Graphite (SCCG) technology has efficiencies far superior to what others are capable of and has so impressed lithium-ion battery manufacturers that after this first mill is installed on site at a major electric vehicle manufacturers new facilities, later in 2017, the successful marrying of SJL's SCCG process to other materials and processes of the manufacturer is expected to translate into an off-take agreement for the Company to supply raw materials, grind, shape, and coat 150,000 tonnes per year of spherical carbon coated graphite for 20 years, generating $350 to $500 million/per year in revenue at capacity. This first mill is being built as a prototype/first-shot at proofing what is going on the EV company's anodes, the mill will continue as a rolling start to bigger numbers just mentioned. Shaped graphite is a major component of Li-ion batteries. Currently the company is in the process of finalizing the engineering model and equipment designs for the first high speed commercial shaping and coating mill in North America.
Saint Jean Carbon Inc. is also at the forefront of the next generation of batteries; this January-2017 the Company announced it has started the design and build of a graphene based lithium-ion battery.
Additionally, Saint Jean Carbon Inc. recently announced a collaborative project with a 'their main battery manufacturing partner' regarding the building of the world's first recycled high performance Lithium-ion battery. We can only speculate who that 'main battery manufacturing partner' is, however it is increasingly clear when we connect the dots that this is all shaping up to be a spectacular opportunity for shareholders establishing a long position in SJL.V now; when Saint Jean Carbon is in a position to disclose the name of their 'main battery manufacturing partner' we expect things will heat up dramatically attention-wise.
Contact Information: Fredrick William, BA Ec. Market Equities Research Group f.william@marketequitiesresearch.com
Advanced Materials: The DNA of Disruption - Goldman Sachs Research's Craig Sainsbury
The need to make products faster, stronger, smaller and lighter is driving the development of new and enhanced materials with properties out of reach of prior generations. Goldman Sachs Research’s Craig Sainsbury discusses three of the most promising – graphene, nanotechnology and OLEDs – and their potential applications from cancer treatment to water filtration.
Terahertz radiation represents a range of the electromagnetic spectrum extending from the highest frequency radio waves to the lowest frequency infrared light. While many attempts have been made to create compact, solid-state devices that can harness it, terahertz radiation has proven difficult to exploit.
However, if such devices can be developed that can tap into the terahertz spectrum, we could see it make a big impact in non-invasive imaging in industry, medicine and security where they are less harmful than X-rays and because of the shorter wavelength and provide sharper images than those produced by microwaves.
Graphene has begun to show some real promise in terahertz devices for everything from wireless communications to improved quantum cascade lasers that can reverse their emission, offering a complete change to fiber optic telecommunications.
The researchers believe that their research, which is described in the journal Nature Communications, could lead to the development of practical uses of terahertz waves to imaging and telecommunications. They key to their development was the fabrication of a graphene-based transistor adapted to terahertz waves.
Because the interaction between terahertz radiation and the electrons in graphene is very strong, the researchers believed that it should be possible to use graphene to manage terahertz waves. With this graphene-based transistor, the researchers believe this kind of control over a complete range of terahertz frequencies is now possible.
"By combining the electrical field, which enables us to control the number of electrons in graphene and thus allows more or less light to pass through, with the magnetic field, which bends the electronic orbits, we have been able to control not just the intensity of the terahertz waves, but also their polarization," said Jean-Marie Poumirol, a member of the UNIGE research team and the first author of the study, in a press release. "It is rare that purely electrical effects are used to control magnetic phenomena."
The researchers envision the graphene-based devices being used in communications and imaging.
"Using a film of graphene associated with terahertz waves, we should be potentially able to send fully-secured information at speeds of about 10 to 100 times faster than with Wi-Fi or radio waves, and do it securely over short distances," explained Poumirol.
The initial imaging applications are thought to be in security. Alexey Kuzmenko, team leader of the research at UNIGE added: “Terahertz waves are stopped by metals and are sensitive to plastics and organic matter. This could lead to more effective means of detecting firearms, drugs and explosives carried by individuals, and could perhaps serve as a tool to strengthen airport safety."
