Advanced Materials

These past 12 months have seen numerous celebrity deaths, athlete drug scandals and the end of Brangelina however, it was also the year Tesla announced fully automated cars, Alexa became part of the family and Leicester City won the Premier League. As we plan ahead for 2017, IDTechEx analysts have taken a look back over the past 12 months and picked out the most impactful technology launches, acquisitions and products from 2016. Happy New Year from all at IDTechEx!

Scientists have demonstrated a method to chemically modify small regions of graphene with high precision, leading to extreme miniaturisation of chemical and biological sensors.

New experiments have shown that it is possible for extremely high currents to pass through graphene, a form of carbon. This allows imbalances in electric charge to be rapidly rectified.

An innovative new cheap and simple mass production technique, developed by the University of Exeter, is set to open up the global potential of the 'wonder' material graphene.

The world's first successful development of an exquisitely sensitive gas sensor based on a new principle that takes advantage of graphene, a material in which carbon atoms are arranged in a sheet one atom thick.

Researchers have used the wonder material graphene to make the novelty children's material silly putty® (polysilicone) conduct electricity -- creating extremely sensitive sensors.

A student engineer from the University of Sussex has won a national car industry award for designing a new battery that could revolutionise electric vehicles.

A new method for producing conductive cotton fabrics using graphene-based inks opens up new possibilities for flexible and wearable electronics, without the use of expensive and toxic processing steps.

The following article summarises some observations made by IDTechEx analysts during the IDTechEx Show! in Santa Clara, CA. It contains details of many of the companies demonstrating products during the exhibition, as well as summaries of relevant conversations and recent updates in each case. For more details about any of the information contained in this exclusive premium article, please contact your subscription manager or any of the IDTechEx analysts.

Following a decade of intensive research into graphene and two-dimensional materials a new semiconductor material shows potential for the future of super-fast electronics.