Vorbeck Materials Corp. has announced a new graphene based conductive ink formulation for flexographic printing. Named Vor-ink Flexo this new ink enables the high-speed printing of this highly conductive material. Like other Vor-ink formulations using graphene, Vor-ink Flexo retains conductivity even after repeat bending and folding. Vor-ink Flexo can be cured at low temperatures and is designed for use on a variety of substrates including paper, paperboard, and polymer films.

Dan Scheffer, Director of Ink Research and Development at Vorbeck, said, “Graphene has unique electronic properties and is the most thermally conductive and the strongest material yet measured.” Dan added, “With the new Vor-ink Flexo formulation, we can rapidly print thousands of feet of highly-conductive patterns, using standard presses and on paper as thin as newsprint. Vor-ink Flexo offers considerable advantages to our customers looking to reduce the cost of electronics.”

Plextronics recently announced that the company's organic photovoltaic (OPV) inks Plexcore PV2000 are ideally suited for printed organic solar cells used as indoor energy harvesting power sources. According to Plextronics the performance of OPV devices using these inks show a 30 percent to 40 percent improvement in power density over comparable devices made with P3HT:PCBM. These devices also show higher performance across a broad range of fluorescent lighting conditions compared to amorphous silicon solar cells.

Mary Boone, Director of Ink Business Development for Plextronics, said, "Working with our partners and customers, we've talked with major retailers and consumer goods companies in the U.S. who want to replace the traditional paper signage used in stores today with low-cost, animated point-of-purchase displays that are self-powered by OPV." Mary, added, "Retailers don't want the ongoing cost and disruption of having to purchase and replace conventional batteries in these displays, so there is tremendous interest in using printable OPV as the power source for these new displays."

www.plextronics.com

Solvay Solexis (Solvay) has recently announced that they will begin to market its newly developed Solvene™ polymer for applications in printed electronics with its partner Thin Film Electronics ASA (Thinfilm).

Thinfilm and Solvay started their collaboration, in 2007, in the field of polymer printed memories, with the goal to optimise Solvay's ferroelectric polymer materials to enhance the performance of Thinfilm's memory technology.

Thinfilm's technology is based on using a ferroelectric polymer as the functional memory material sandwiched between two sets of electrodes. A key competitive advantage of Thinfilm's memory technology is that it is fully printable in high volume roll-to-roll machines. The jointly developed polymer formulation leverages both Solvay's and Thinfilm's intellectual property. Solvay is a world leader in fluoromaterials with more than 4,200 registered patents, while Thinfilm has 15 years of experience and over 100 patents in the field of non-volatile memories using functional polymers.

CVD Equipment Corp. has announced that they have signed an exclusive Distribution Agreement with Graphene Laboratories, Inc. for Chemical Vapour Deposited (CVD) Graphene products. Under this Agreement CVD Equipment Corp. will manufacture CVD grown Graphene based materials and products and Graphene Laboratories, Inc. will market and sell them on a worldwide basis.

Dr. Elena Polyakova, CEO of Graphene Laboratories, Inc., said, “The ability to mass produce CVD Graphene is a key milestone for Graphene commercialisation.” Elena added, “Currently, the progress in development of Graphene-based commercial products is largely stalled by a lack of supply of high-quality wafer-size Graphene films. CVD grown Graphene is well positioned to address this market demand. We anticipate strong interest from academic and industrial customers in our CVD Graphene products and this is an extremely important partnership for our Company. By selecting CVD Equipment Corporation as our partner, we will be able to expand our Graphene based product offerings and greatly advance the development of various Graphene enabled products.”