Looking ahead in the space, IDTechEx Research projects that the industry will grow from less than US$100 million in 2020 to reach an impressive US$700 million by 2031.“Since graphene is still largely an additive material, this means that we will find graphene, of different types, in numerous volume applications in the years to come,” explains the firm's report. “This success, it is worth remembering, will not have come overnight but will have been the results of almost two decades of steadfast global research and commercialization efforts.”For its part, Grand View Research expects the graphene market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 43.2 percent between 2021 and 2028 to reach US$1.6 billion. In its opinion, rising demand for graphene in the electric vehicle industry will be one of the sector’s driving forces.Research and Markets is just as bullish, projecting that the market size for graphene will hit US$1.5 billion by 2025, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 19 percent from 2020. The firm believes that this increase will be due in large part to the material’s wide range of applications, including in the automotive and transportation, aerospace, electronics and construction industries.The firm points to monolayer graphene as the fastest-growing type of graphene, with applications in quantum computing, pressure sensors, touch sensors, transistors, nanoelectromechanical systems, optoelectronics, aerospace components and electronic components, among others.In terms of the fastest-growing applications for graphene, energy storage and harvesting reign supreme. “Graphene is used in energy generation and storage of capacitors, batteries, and also in grid applications for strong wind or solar power,” as per the report’s authors.Finally, electronics represents the quickest-growing end-use industry for graphene — specifically the wearable technology segment, where graphene is used in “optical electronics to create flexible and wearable newspaper-like smartphones that can be worn on the wrist, tablet, and a rolled-up newspaper.”