Graphene: a deep dive into its properties, production, and applications

Graphene is a term that has popped up numerous times over the years that I have been with Electronic Specifier. And, whilst I’ve always recognised it as a versatile material that is set to change numerous industries, I’m not sure, until now, that I fully appreciated just how vast its uses and applications are. It is this very versatility that intrigued me. How can a material be all things?

So when I started this article, I naturally began looking into graphene’s basic properties. I found myself asking, What is it? What does it do? And so forth. However, what I found is that these questions have been answered many times, by many people. Graphene is nothing new, not really – it has been reported on for decades. However, the questions that people are now asking are around scalability, cost-effectiveness, and standardisation. How do you, for example, scale graphene production effectively and cost-efficiently, without compromising on quality? This realisation shifted my focus from the questions that have already been answered to the next round of questions – what are the hurdles that stand in the way of making graphene a truly transformative material.