# How long will it be before there are products made of graphene on the shelves?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-will-it-be-before-there-are-products-made-of-graphene-on-the-shelves/628841>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 20, 2012, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-will-it-be-before-there-are-products-made-of-graphene-on-the-shelves/628841 "2012-07-20T11:31:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bakhesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Bakhesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bakhesh)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-will-it-be-before-there-are-products-made-of-graphene-on-the-shelves/628841/1 "2012-07-20T11:31:21Z")

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It seems like this wonder material has so many interesting properties, it will find hundreds of applications in the real world. It sounds like this will be as commonplace as plastic one day.

I’m guessing that the manufacturing process needs refining, and that there will be various health and safety hurdles for it to clear. So, how long will it be before we start seeing products made of it on the shelves?

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**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-will-it-be-before-there-are-products-made-of-graphene-on-the-shelves/628841/2 "2012-07-20T16:11:53Z")

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I’d say minus quite a few years. Graphite is just stacked layers of graphene, and “lead” pencils have been available for quite a long time.

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**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-will-it-be-before-there-are-products-made-of-graphene-on-the-shelves/628841/3 "2012-07-21T02:41:55Z")

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I was expecting carbon nanotubes to appear first.

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**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-will-it-be-before-there-are-products-made-of-graphene-on-the-shelves/628841/4 "2012-07-21T05:33:34Z")

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> [@OldGuy](#):
>
> I’d say minus quite a few years. Graphite is just stacked layers of graphene, and “lead” pencils have been available for quite a long time.

That’s like sticking a chunk of coal into a ring and calling it a diamond. After all, they’re just the same basic material arranged in different ways.

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**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-will-it-be-before-there-are-products-made-of-graphene-on-the-shelves/628841/5 "2012-07-21T05:42:25Z")

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Not really, there IS some graphene in graphite. You can get graphene from graphite just using sticky tape. [Making Graphene 101, Ozyilmaz' Group - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rphiCdR68TE)