A TECHNOLOGY firm behind a wonder material is continuing its growth after revealing two project successes.

Applied Graphene Materials (AGM), near Redcar, says it has secured funding applications to work with Sedgefield-based PolyPhotonix and The Centre for Process Innovation on graphene in transparent electrodes.

PolyPhotonix is known for its work on revolutionary sleep masks capable of transforming the treatment of eye disease in diabetes sufferers.

AGM, which last year raised £11m from floating on the Alternative Investment Market, is also working with DuPont Teijin Films on using grapheme in polyester films.

It said the deals are worth £300,000.

Graphene can conduct electricity a million times better than copper, despite being as thin as human hair, and a sheet stretched over a hole could support a ten-tonne truck.

Bosses at AGM revealed the work in a trading update ahead of announcing its results for the year to July 31.

In a report, Jon Mabbitt, chief executive, said: “We have continued to benefit from the global profile we have established and more generally from the growing awareness of the potential of graphene across a large number of sectors.

“However, it remains the case that we continue to prioritise our core target market areas of polymers and composites, paints and coatings, and lubricants and oils.

“For an industry at this early stage of development, our operations continue to be focused on sampling rather than the supply of commercial quantities of graphene with the timescale to the achievement of the latter difficult to predict.”

Earlier this year, The Northern Echo revealed AGM was looking to triple its workforce to become an industry world leader.

The company said it wanted 30 staff by the end of the year, including a business development team covering mainland Europe.

Founded by Professor Karl Coleman, a professor of inorganic chemistry at Durham University, AGM spun out in 2010.

The North-East has played a key role in the development of graphene since it was isolated by scientists at Manchester University in 2010.