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

Based upon the use and layout of the flooded facilities the sort of equipment that may be most likely to be needed include: back end drive testers, metrology and process measurement equipment, rowbar and slider process equipment (for head manufacturing), automation and material handling equipment and other specialized equipment used in recording head and other component manufacturing, as well as drive assembly and test equipment.

FORBES: Capital Equipment Likely Needed for Thailand HDD Factory Repairs

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