The hope is that pairing up researchers and businesses will hasten the development of material and component manufacturing processes for the carbon-based substance, and make it possible for graphene to find its way into products such as flexible electronics, batteries and faster processors.

ENGADGET: EU backs consortium in billion-euro program to hasten graphene development

The idea is to coat the tin material onto the copper component that conducts electricity.

FORBES: Tin: The Secret To Improving Lithium-Ion Battery Life

The crucial component for making this material is an exotic solvent called 1-butyl, 3-methylimidazolium chloride.

ECONOMIST: Storing electricity

The problem is that the resulting material is as sensitive as its most sensitive component.

ECONOMIST: A new hybrid explosive is safer to handle but still powerful

Like an office printer that puts 2D digital files on a piece of paper, a 3D printer creates components by depositing thin layers of material one after another using a digital blueprint until the exact component required has been created.

WHITEHOUSE: The White House

Each electronic component, he decided, could be made of the same type of material and integrated into a whole.

ECONOMIST: Jack Kilby

Fraud was a material part of the mortgage collapse, a big factor in commercial property and loan losses and a component in investment banking and private-equity losses that did more damage than acknowledged.

ECONOMIST: Letters