Looking beyond the hype

Grab a pencil and some sticky tape, and you're holding the lab equipment necessary to win a Nobel Prize.

In 2004, Konstantin Novoselov and Andre Geim, two physicists at the University of Manchester, discovered graphene by peeling apart layers of graphite using adhesive strips.

At just the width of an atom across, graphene is the thinnest material known to humans, and also the strongest.

In graphene, carbon atoms are arranged in a hexagonal lattice formation, similar to the pattern of chicken wire.

Strong covalent bonds between the atoms give graphene a tensile strength 325 times greater than steel, while maintaining flexibility and elasticity. Graphene is also an efficient conductor of heat and electricity, and is ultra-lightweight.

The discovery instigated a whirlwind of speculation into how the new material could change the world.

"But graphene is just a teenager," said Baker. "Right now, we are in the 'trough of disillusionment', and we are starting to climb out of it."

Part of the journey through a hype cycle requires an adjustment of expectations, said Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, a director at Cambridge consultancy IDTechEx who has been conducting market research into graphene since 2006.

"There is a difference between ideal graphene, the wonder material, and commercial graphene, which is more down-to-earth," said Ghaffarzadeh.

He explains that there are numerous varieties of graphene－sheets, flakes, and powders made of multi-layered or few-layered graphene to name but a few－and most are currently used as an additive to improve the performance of other materials.

There is even debate over whether certain additives can be classed as graphene. Last year, China and the UK formed a graphene standardization working group aimed at ensuring quality control in the market.

On the nano level, single-layer graphene has fantastic properties. On a larger scale, some forms of graphene act like graphite, while others behave like an oxide.

This makes it challenging to convince industry to turn to graphene, where the material would compete with other additives that are cheaper and only marginally poorer performers.