Graphene

Commercialized graphene production is still in its nascent stage. As a parallel, think about aluminum (or aluminium). It predecessor material, Alum, had been known since the 5th century BCE, but it wasn’t until 1824 when Danish physicist Hans Christian Orsted discovered aluminum metal. Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville was the first person to establish a method to manufacture aluminum around 1854 but at a cost prohibitive price. It wasn’t until the 1890s that the prices allowed aluminum to become more widely used (in jewelry, optical instruments, and some everyday items.) Compared to aluminum, graphene appears to be on a super-fast tract, but it too had to overcome some early difficulties involving price, purity, consistency, energy demands, and eco-unfriendly processes. Many experts expect the 2020s to be the boon decade for graphene as manufacturing comes to scale in an affordable, reliable, eco-friendly manner.