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In 2016, the graphene market in the United States was valued at *** million U.S. dollars, but this is projected to increase by more than ** million U.S. dollars by 2024.

Explanation – The future of electronics

Demand for a new generation of electronics that use graphene is expected to be a primary factor behind the estimated boom in the value of the graphene market in the United States over forthcoming years. The material’s special properties provide the opportunity to create flexible wearable devices that can very efficiently conduct electricity. The market value of graphene used in electronics in the United States is forecast to exceed ** million U.S. dollars by 2024.

Context – A sticky situation

Graphene can be isolated today using very high-tech methods, but back in 2004 two researchers at The University of Manchester became the first to isolate, identify, and characterize a single layer of carbon atoms using an ordinary item of office stationery: sticky tape. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov – both born and raised in Russia – began extracting flakes of carbon from graphite using the tape, repeatedly peeling off layers from the original flakes until they could go no further. Using specialist equipment, they could then determine the number of individual layers in these ultra-fine graphite flakes, with each one-atom thick individual layer being a sheet of graphene.