Materials innovations and industrial adaptation take time, especially when semiconductor companies have tied trillions of dollars into developing silicon technologies.

You can argue that graphene was oversold upon its discovery. And you’d be right.

One thing I have learned in my limited experience in science is that there is tremendous pressure on scientists to oversell. Their livelihood, their projects, and their funding depend on it.

Plus, graphene is damn cool and exciting. Scientists are humans too, and we can oversell the potential and delivery time for a new technology just as easily as any other human. You know how you told yourself you were going to wake up early and go to the gym last Saturday?

Unfortunately, innovation cannot be rushed. As materials scientists, we still have a few great leaps to make before our understanding of graphene can deliver on all of its promises.

No one knows when graphene will be adopted into mainstream industry. That will happen on its own timeline, when graphene becomes significantly cheaper and more effective than currently employed technologies. Anyone who pretends to know when this will happen is a liar.

But it will happen. And when it does, it is going to be awesome.