Now, after years of R&D, some of the material's original promised potential now seems tantalizingly close at hand.

To offer an idea of the graphene-dream, graphene microprocessors deliver more data at the same speeds than silicon, and at far lower costs. They can run smoothly across a wide degree of operating temperatures, and consume around 80% less energy while doing all this.

Sounds like miracle stuff, and Ben Jensen, the chief executive of 2D Photonics, a startup spun out from the University of Cambridge that's currently working to commercialize these chips, explained to the Guardian what went wrong with the black stuff's promise.