Graphene set to make a late charge for electric vehicle batteries

Harder than a diamond but more flexible than rubber, graphene certainly sounds like a material of the future. And there are companies betting its ability to revolutionise the batteries used in electric vehicles is something we will not have to wait decades for. #Graphene is the basic building block of graphite, composed of a single layer of carbon atoms. Since its discovery in 2004, research institutions and companies around the world have been working on separation technologies that enable large-scale and high-quality extraction of graphene from graphite but to date, mass production at a low cost has proved challenging. But Talga Resources managing director Mark Thompson said the ASX-listed graphene hopeful was confident its plan to sell graphene for use in commercial applications was a "shorter-term business story rather than a longer-term one". A US-based lithium-ion battery developer is testing Talga's graphite for use in its batteries, while Germany's JenaBatteries is testing the company's graphene for flow batteries. "We are taking our cues from industry and it is all starting to accelerate really fast," Mr Thompson said.
http://www.afr.com/business/mining/graphene-set-to-make-a-late-charge-for-electric-vehicle-batteries-20161008-grxz60