Graphene is a material that has the potential to revolutionize various industries including manufacturing, medicine and even tennis rackets. For now, there are plans to make use of graphene as a part of an aircraft body and other plans are as ambitious as using it for DNA sequencing. Indeed, this material has numerous possible applications now being studied by researchers. Spurred by its unique properties, graphene has become a commodity investment in the stock market.

Essentially, graphene is a layer of graphite that is only a single molecule thick. The substance was isolated with the help of University of Manchester's Nobel Prize-winning scientists, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov. According to the study, this substance is stronger than diamond and can also conduct electricity a thousand times better than copper.

Graphene is hard to create in general, but especially in substantial quantities. Despite this obvious hurdle to commercial usage, Applied Graphene Materials, LLC (AGM) was able to leverage its holding of what it believes to be the largest-capacity graphene production facility in Europe to raise over 11 million GBP from investors last November. They have partnered with Dyson and Proctor & Gamble in developing graphene for various commercial uses, including a powder form. According to AGM Chief Executive Jon Mabbitt, this fund will be of great help in developing the next phase of the program and in strengthening their relationship with various partners. These latest developments have placed graphene in the running to become a 21st century wonder material.

Those more familiar with the details of the engineering required to make a product like this functional are cautious, however. An article in engineering journal IEEE Spectrum warns against commodity investing because the manufacturing process is constantly being improved and the cost to create it will likely go down significantly before a commercial application is put into practice.