If we could learn something after the intense days of the Graphene Week 2024 (14-18 October, Prague, Czech Republic), that was the importance of collaborating with the rest of the Graphene Flagship projects for our common good.

GRAPHERGIA participated in the Graphene Week 2024 with a workshop and two posters presentations. Not only the days were intense, but also they were amusing, so let’s refresh a bit the activities we did in case you couldn’t join us!

The first person of our team landing in the Czech capital was Elena Merli, Chemical Researcher at Next Technology Tecnotessile, followed by Despoina Batsouli, Head of Advanced Materials at Adamant Composites; Spyros Yannopoulos, GRAPHERGIA Coordinator from Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH); Laura Argilés, Marketing Manager at AUSTRALO; Philippe Basset, Professor at ESIEE Paris (Université Gustave Eiffel); and Magda Spella, Project Manager at FORTH.

Once our team was gathered in the Cubex Centre of Prague, the fun started. On Tuesday, Despoina joined the Poster Session A to speak about how GRAPHERGIA is powering future energy with graphene in an evening accompanied by some drinks. The day after, on Wednesday, Elena Merli also presented a second poster about our project in the Poster Session B, in a full room of graphene and 2D materials academics and innovators willing to learn from each other’s research.

The GRAPHERGIA and ARMS Worksohp about Smart Textiles and Energy Storage

However, the highlight of our participation at the Graphene Week 2024 was our workshop co-organized with our sibling project ARMS on Wednesday morning. The workshop was titled “Integrating Graphene Innovations: From Smart Textiles to High-Performance Energy Storage”, and was attended by about 150 people, who actively participated after each presenter asking questions in vivid discussions.

The organizers were Spyros and Magda, together with Hamed Pourkheirollah from the ARMS Project. They invited as speakers:

  • Benedetto Bozzini, Full Professor of Applied Physical Chemistry, Battery Materials Engineering Laboratory Coordinator and Executive Committee Member of the Dept. of Energy at Politecnico di Milano (Italy). He offered the Plenary Talk “Multimodal spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging of Zn-air batteries”.
  • Jinhua Sun, Associate Professor of Materials and Manufacturing, Department of Industrial and Materials Science, Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden). His presentation focused on “Tailoring the surface chemistry and assembling structure of 2D materials for supercapacitors and batteries”.
  • Hamed Pourkheirollah, Researcher at the Tampere University (Finland). He spoke about “Advancements in Supercapacitor Technology: Optimizing Graphene-Enhanced Carbon Materials for Printed Supercapacitor Applications”.
  • Despoina Batsouli, Materials Engineer, MSc, Head of Advanced Materials Division at Adamant Composites (Greece). She titled her presentation “A single-step, eco-friendly technique for depositing highquality graphene utilizing laser-assisted methods”.
  • Phillipe Basset, Professor of Electronic, Microelectronic and MicroElectro-Mechanical Systems, Department of Health, Energy and Sustainable Environment at Gustave Eiffel University (France), who explained his research on “Conditioning systems for triboelectric nanogenerators incorporating graphene material”.

This joint workshop delved into the transformative potential of graphene and 2D materials in shaping the future of sustainable energy. ARMS and GRAPHERGIA are pushing the boundaries of technology to create eco-friendly, high-performance energy solutions that will power the next generation of devices and applications.

Our team members networking went beyond the poster sessions and our workshop, since the Graphene Flagship provided us with the perfect space to meet other graphene and 2D materials innovators: the Graphene Flagship Hall, joined by the 12 projects of our community. Each of us had a booth in which we could speak about our projects to find potential synergies during the coffee and lunch breaks to exchange contacts, ideas and insights.

The Graphene Flagship Annual Meeting: “A sense of community is key”

Right after the end of the Graphene Week 2024, the Graphene Flagship Annual Meeting started, in the same Cubex Centre of Prague on the 18th of October. Patrik Johansson, Director of the Graphene Flagship, welcomed the session, followed by the contribution from the European Commission, represented by Jean-Marie Auger, who remarked the “importance of collaborations and active engagement among the RIA/IAs projects to strengthen the Graphene Flagship, and for its common good”, highlighting the Graphene Week as a good example. 

Patrik Johansson also spoke about the relevance of the Graphene Week 2024, valuing as very positive and successful its impact: “the flagship of the Flagship”, he said.

“If we hadn’t had the Graphene Flagship, we would have been significantly behind the rest of the world, including Asia and America. That is why a sense of community is key”. – Patrik Johansson, Director of the Graphene Flagship.

In fact, he applauded our GRAPHERGIA and ARMS joint workshop on Synergizing Sustainability at the IEEE FLEPS in Tampere as a collaboration that creates synergies that help us all succeed.

During the Graphene Flagship Annual Meeting, our project coordinator Spyros also had the opportunity to present the first research activities, materials and impacts of the year 1 of GRAPHERGIA, that will revolutionize our energy landscape with smart self-charging textiles and next-generation Li-ion batteries for a climate-neutral future!

A big thank you to the Graphene Flagship for organizing the Graphene Week 2024!

*Pictures taken by Kirsten Loewenthal.