Water molecules distort the electrical resistance of graphene, but now a team of European researchers has discovered that when this two-dimensional material is integrated with the metal of a circuit, contact resistance is not impaired by humidity. This finding will help to develop new sensors –the interface between circuits and the real world– with a significant cost reduction.

The many applications of graphene nanomaterials also include those in the field of medicine, from cancer therapies to tissue engineering and gene transfer. The main barrier that tools manufactured with these materials will have to overcome is the reaction of the immune system. Now European researchers have analyzed how our defences act in the presence of graphene oxide, the oxidised form of graphene.

Due to its excellent properties, graphene aims to revolutionize not only industry, but also our daily lives, with devices of unprecedented flexibility. But before making history, it has to face its main obstacle: low profitability. Scientists from the European project Gladiator present this week at the Graphene Week in Athens a new technique and methodology to monitor the growth of graphene that will improve the quality and reduce the fabrication costs of the material.

Mobile phone, computer and TV displays all use very expensive colour filters and other components, which cannot be easily recycled. German and Spanish scientists have designed a new screen, which is cheaper and ecological as it uses a hybrid material. This material’s luminescent proteins can be used in backlighting systems and colour filters made using a 3D printing technique.

Researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) have visualized step-by-step and on a microscopic level how certain steels fracture when extreme loads are applied to them. This could help to improve these materials, which are used in the automobile industry.

A research conducted by the Institute for Molecular Science of the Universitat de València and of the Institute for Chemical Technology of the Universitat Politècnica de València and the Spanish National Research Council, confirms for the first time the possibility of modulating the magnetic properties of an inorganic material through organic photoactive molecules activated by light.

Scientists from Universidad Carlos III in Madrid (UC3M) are participating in a European research project that involves developing a new type of tidal energy generator that will be cheaper and more efficient. The device would replace conventional magnetic materials for new materials that are made using an alternative technology.

US and Spanish researchers have used a polymeric material to replicate the body of the Agrilus planipennis, a beetle that invades woods in North America. The decoy reproduces the texture and iridescent green colour of the females’ shell on a nanometric scale, and does so with such perfection that the males pounce on them as if they were real. In this way they can be caught and populations of this pest reduced.