2. Manufacturability. I expect this is the big problem. It's a chemical engineering problem to scale up a "nano" process. The article says it's not ready, but doesn't say what the biggest challenge is going forward.
Quoting from the article: "The team at UCF has experimented with applying newly discovered two-dimensional materials only a few atoms thick to supercapacitors. Other researchers have also tried formulations with graphene and other two-dimensional materials, but with limited success."
I'm not sure if they used Graphene specifically (the only other 2D matl I know is silicine) but there are manufacturing issues involved with Graphene especially around mass production but these are being solved. Graphene used to be one of the most expensive materials in the world to produce (per unit weight). It is now (2015) "only" about $100/kg. compare this with something like thermal coal (another carbon based matl) at under $100/t. There is still orders of magnitude in the price before economics look good.
edit: That is not to say it is worthless the price has fallen fast in last 5 years it just needs to keep at the same trajectory for a while longer. Graphene is after all an extremely new material. I don't think there is anything fundamentally impossible to solve manufacturing wise and economies of scale should kick in as demand for it increases.
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Quoting from the article: "The team at UCF has experimented with applying newly discovered two-dimensional materials only a few atoms thick to supercapacitors. Other researchers have also tried formulations with graphene and other two-dimensional materials, but with limited success."
I'm not sure if they used Graphene specifically (the only other 2D matl I know is silicine) but there are manufacturing issues involved with Graphene especially around mass production but these are being solved. Graphene used to be one of the most expensive materials in the world to produce (per unit weight). It is now (2015) "only" about $100/kg. compare this with something like thermal coal (another carbon based matl) at under $100/t. There is still orders of magnitude in the price before economics look good.
edit: That is not to say it is worthless the price has fallen fast in last 5 years it just needs to keep at the same trajectory for a while longer. Graphene is after all an extremely new material. I don't think there is anything fundamentally impossible to solve manufacturing wise and economies of scale should kick in as demand for it increases.