The Race to Develop Graphene

Samsung Electronics, the South Korean company that’s the world leader in smartphones, televisions, and memory chips, is stockpiling patents on graphene, a superthin touchscreen material that’s transparent, pliable, and conducts electricity. Stretched across the surface of a phone or a tablet, graphene can turn any device into a touchscreen—think of it as a high-tech version of cling wrap. “Everything it does, it does really, really well,” says Jiwoong Park, an associate professor at Cornell University who heads a group of 10 researchers working on graphene technology.

Thinner, stronger, and more flexible than materials now on the market, graphene is ideal for wearable devices like smartwatches and for tablets that can fold into the size of a smartphone. “We will someday see an era where mobile devices will truly become flexible—easily folded and unfolded—and that’s when we’ll need graphene,” says Claire Kim, a Seoul-based analyst at Daishin Securities. The first companies to commercialize graphene technology in mobile devices will have an advantage over the rest of the industry, she says.