What happened to the promised applications of graphene and related materials? 

Thanks to initiatives like the European Union’s Graphene Flagship and heavy investments by leading industries, graphene manufacturing is mature enough to produce prototypes and some real-life niche applications. 

Now, researchers at Graphene Flagship partner The Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) in Karlsruhe, Germany, have published two papers that roadmap the expected future mass introduction of graphene and related materials in the market.

Back in 2004, graphene was made by peeling off atomically thin layers from a graphite block. Now, thanks to the advances pioneered by the Graphene Flagship, among others, we can produce high quantities of graphene with reliable and reproducible quality. 

Furthermore, the Graphene Flagship has driven the discovery of thousands of layered materials, complementary to graphene in properties and applications, and has spearheaded efforts to standardize the fabrication of graphene to ensure consistency and trustworthiness.

The new publications by Graphene Flagship researchers at Fraunhofer ISI, just issued by IOP Publishing’s journal 2D Materials, review the latest outcomes of the Technology and Innovation Roadmap, a process that explores the different pathways towards the industrialization and commercialization of graphene and related materials.

In particular, these articles summarize the impact that graphene and related materials will have on transforming the manufacturing process and triggering the emergence of new value chains.

“Our final goal is seeing graphene and related materials fully integrated into day-to-day products and manufacturing,” said Henning Döscher from Graphene Flagship partner Fraunhofer ISI, who leads the Graphene Flagship Roadmap Team. “We are continuously analyzing scientific and technological advances in the field as well as their capacity to fulfill future industrial needs. Our first Graphene Roadmap Brief articles summarise some of the most exciting results.

“Graphene and related materials add value throughout the value chain, from enhancing and enabling new materials to improve individual components and, eventually, end products.” 

The most immediate applications of graphene, such as composites, inks and coatings are already commercially available, as highlighted by the Graphene Flagship product gallery. 

The industry will soon be ready to absorb and implement the latest innovations and start manufacturing batteries, solar panels, electronics, photonics and communication devices and medical technologies.

“The market demand for graphene has almost quadrupled in the last two years,” said Thomas Reiss from Graphene Flagship partner Fraunhofer ISI, and co-leader of the roadmap endeavor. “By strengthening standards and creating tailored high-quality materials, we expect to go beyond niche products and applications to broad market penetration by 2025. Then, graphene could be incorporated in ubiquitous commodities such as tires, batteries and electronics.”

The dawning decade seems decisive in the road to the market of graphene and related materials. 

“By 2030 we will see if graphene is really as disruptive as silicon or steel,” said Döscher. “The Graphene Flagship has already shown that graphene is useful for numerous applications. Now, we need to ensure that Europe stays a leader in the field, to ensure we benefit from the economic and societal impact of developing such an innovation.”

“The publication of the Graphene Flagship Roadmap Briefs is a timely and welcome development for industries innovating with graphene and related materials. Improving trust and confidence in graphene-enabled products is a key prerequisite for industrial uptake," said Alexander Tzalenchuk, Graphene Flagship leader for Industrialization. "Informed by the market analysis and technology assessment of the Graphene Flagship Roadmap, this further contributes to our agenda providing expert validation of the characteristics of graphene and related materials, graphene-enhanced components, devices and systems, by developing consensus-based and accepted international standards.”

Added Kari Hjelt, head of Innovation of the Graphene Flagship: “We see a strongly increased interest in graphene by several branches of industry as witnessed by the eleven Spearhead Projects of the Graphene Flagship, all led by industry partners. The first mass applications pave the way to emerging high value-added areas in electronics and biomedical applications. In the near future, we will start to witness the transformative power of graphene in many industries. The updates from the Technology and Innovation Roadmap team sheds light on the road ahead for both research and industrial communities alike.”