--- title: Graphene: The Material Of Tomorrow description: Meet the wonder material that is one hundred thousandth of the thickness of a human hair, yet is a hundred times stronger than steel canonical: https://time.com/3943209/graphene-material-science/ author: TIME Video article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-01T15:36:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:25:58.752Z article:section: Science og:title: Graphene: The Material Of Tomorrow og:description: Graphene: The Material Of Tomorrow og:url: https://time.com/3943209/graphene-material-science/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a8c5e4c9e2f8e4d/69885947a988cadf856b34ab/1920-graphene.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: 1920-graphene.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Graphene: The Material Of Tomorrow twitter:description: Graphene: The Material Of Tomorrow twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a8c5e4c9e2f8e4d/69885947a988cadf856b34ab/1920-graphene.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Graphene: The Material Of Tomorrow > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=113da60f-5c96-4b50-aff0-a31e79f3b89a&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Graphene: The Material Of Tomorrow [Watch (HLS stream): Graphene: The Material Of Tomorrow](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vO6wOpoK.m3u8) (4:11)  _Published 2015-07-01. Meet the wonder material that is one hundred thousandth of the thickness of a human hair, yet is a hundred times stronger than steel. Graphene has been called "the most exciting material of the 21st century."_ by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Jul 1, 2015 3:36 PM UTC by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Jul 1, 2015 3:36 PM UTC ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Graphene has been called a wonder material, and it's the most exciting material of the 21st century. And we hope it will work itself into many, many facets of our lives. It is just one sheet of graphite. This is a material we all know as pencil lead. But in graphene it's Really thin. It's the thickness of a single atom, about one hundred thousandth of the thickness of a human hair. It is the strongest material we know of. Tt's at least a hundred time stronger than steel. It can be the most electrically conductive material, and it does not corrode in water. It is the thinnest, the most bendable material you can work with. You can actually stretch it a long way before it breaks and it's actually really easy to make. Each one of its properties is amazing, but to have them all in one package is like winning ten gold medals in different sports at the Olympics. [ UNKNOWN ] But the real excitement is all of the different areas that this one material can conduct. Grapheme is already seeping it's way into our lives and is in some tennis rackets and golf clubs. You can mix grapheme into paint so you can actually paint an electrical circuit. So these are really just the beginning Graphene is going to start being in lots of small applications right away. High performance, flexible electronics. Those are gonna start coming out on a yearly basis now. We can turn it into a little lightbulb on a much, much smaller scale than has ever been made before. But if you look really far out, you can imagine something as functional as a cell phone that you can roll up and stick in your pocket, or put on clothing, you can imagine, you could put it on someone's brain, and you can start recording electrical stimuli or used as a glucose sensor if you have diabetes So that you don't have to prick your finger to read your blood glucose level. You can spray on graphing with an airbrush. You can mix it in to a plastic to make it electrically conductive, stronger, more durable So this can go into either the body of your car or of the wings of an airplane and we use its ability to emit light or have circuits that are on contact lenses. Heads up displays for airplanes, for cars. A TV, you could apply it your wall like wallpaper. Imagine unrolling solar cells on your roof. Graphene has also been used in batteries and supercapacitors which are like batteries but are good for storing energy very quickly. Can imagine poking very small holes in it to make the most efficient possible filter for water desalination. More purification. We can imagine that a bridge cable is a hundred times smaller and able to withstand the same load, and withstand earthquakes, and wouldn't corrode in the atmosphere. So, how do you really get this incredibly promising material to live up to some of the Its promises. There's one, I think, fundamental problem we still have to solve, is that if we want to use this in like, a bridge cable, we don't need one atomic layer. We need millions of atomic layers that are all very high quality and perfect. On an industrial scale, we need to learn how to grow, graphing reliably, And cheap enough. Great things take that investment and patience. We have to kind of take that leap of faith, start mass producing it, and getting into the hands of the people who will start using it. It takes imagination and a little bit of daring and risk taking. From medicine to structures to energy We hope it has revolutionary impact. [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3943209/graphene-material-science/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3943209/graphene-material-science/"},"headline":"Graphene: The Material Of Tomorrow","datePublished":"2015-07-01T15:36:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:25:58.752Z","description":"Meet the wonder material that is one hundred thousandth of the thickness of a human hair, yet is a hundred times stronger than steel. 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