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Graphene

Graphene is a sheet of carbon one atom thick, first pulled from pencil graphite with ordinary sticky tape. It is the thinnest material known and also the strongest, carries electricity as well as copper, and is almost completely transparent.

Nobel Prize press release, 5 Oct 2010
Material · how far it has got4/5Approved or on sale

How far from your life: You can get it now, though it may not be common yet.

Company-reported

From lab to your life

Why it’s on step 4

  1. 1Lab discovery
  2. 2Working prototype
  3. 3Real-world testing
  4. 4Approved or on sale
  5. 5Everyday life

The rule

A regulator approved or cleared it where approval applies (the FDA, the EMA, a CE mark), or it is sold to the public or to customers beyond a trial.

  • Ford said graphene would go into production by the end of 2018 in more than ten under-hood parts of the F-150 and Mustang. Less than half a percent of graphene cut noise by about 17%. Ford, 9 Oct 2018

The short version

What you need to know

Why it matters

Mixed into plastics, it can make them conduct electricity and resist heat and wear. It could also lead to faster transistors and transparent touch screens.

Nobel Prize press release, 5 Oct 2010
How small

One atom thick.

Nobel Prize press release, 5 Oct 2010
Is it really nano?

Truly nano

Graphene is a single layer of atoms; there is nothing to it but nanoscale structure.

Nobel Prize press release, 5 Oct 2010
Where you’ll find it

In a few products so far: some phones and sporting goods, and under-hood parts of some Ford cars.

Ford, 9 Oct 2018
Who’s behind it

First isolated at the University of Manchester; now made by many companies

On the record

Every step, dated

Newest first. Company-reported means the only source so far is the company itself.

  1. On saleCompany-reported

    Ford said graphene would go into production by the end of 2018 in more than ten under-hood parts of the F-150 and Mustang. Less than half a percent of graphene cut noise by about 17%.

    Ford, 9 Oct 2018
  2. On the record

    Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov of the University of Manchester won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their experiments on graphene.

    Nobel Prize press release, 5 Oct 2010

Sources

Where every line comes from

Each source with the passage, word for word, that backs what we wrote.

  1. Nobel Prize press release, 5 Oct 2010A thin flake of ordinary carbon, just one atom thick, lies behind this year's Nobel Prize in Physics.
  2. Ford, 9 Oct 2018It’s in cell phones and even some sporting goods – and soon,

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