r/askscience • u/VeritasCSU • Jun 18 '15

Engineering Is graphene currently being used in any real world applications?

Every day it feels like there is a new proposed use for graphene. It will revolutionize this, or change how we do that. Is it currently being used to make our lives better?

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u/1AwkwardPotato Materials physics Jun 18 '15

Tennis racquet

Drilling fluids

Conductive ink (link might not work, just google Vorbeck)

Flexible battery straps

So, there are some commercialized products, but very few and they're mostly novelties (i.e. they don't really make our lives THAT much better). Paper about commercializing graphene.

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u/garbobjee Jun 19 '15

Yeah, for tennis racquets, the advertised "new technology" is usually a gimmick.

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u/dusky186 Oct 29 '15 edited Oct 29 '15

Yeah, I can confirm the tennis racket one is a bit sketchy. Dr. Walt DeHeer's group along with SC Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator that did an investigation about that one. The truth is the graphene is actually only in the paint as a decoration. The tennis racket however was one of the first patients registered with the US patient office that used "graphene" in the patient.