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  • Review Article
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Path towards graphene commercialization from lab to market

Nature Nanotechnology volume 14, pages 927–938 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

The ground-breaking demonstration of the electric field effect in graphene reported more than a decade ago prompted the strong push towards the commercialization of graphene as evidenced by a wealth of graphene research, patents and applications. Graphene flake production capability has reached thousands of tonnes per year, while continuous graphene sheets of tens of metres in length have become available. Various graphene technologies developed in laboratories have now transformed into commercial products, with the very first demonstrations in sports goods, automotive coatings, conductive inks and touch screens, to name a few. Although challenges related to quality control in graphene materials remain to be addressed, the advancement in the understandings of graphene will propel the commercial success of graphene as a compelling technology. This Review discusses the progress towards commercialization of graphene for the past decade and future perspectives.

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Fig. 1: A timeline of landmarks for graphene synthesis and commercialization in the past decade.
Fig. 2: Mass production of graphene as raw materials.
Fig. 3: Selective applications of graphene in composites, energy and environment.
Fig. 4: Selective applications of graphene in electronics and optoelectronics.
Fig. 5: Progress towards defect minimization and standardization of graphene.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Wei Kong, Hyun Kum, Sang-Hoon Bae, Jaewoo Shim, Hyunseok Kim, Lingping Kong, Yuan Meng, Kejia Wang, Chansoo Kim & Jeehwan Kim

  2. Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Jeehwan Kim

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Jeehwan Kim

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  1. Wei Kong
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Kong, W., Kum, H., Bae, SH. et al. Path towards graphene commercialization from lab to market. Nat. Nanotechnol. 14, 927–938 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-019-0555-2

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