Graphene in particular - which won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov - is a significant development in materials science.
However, researchers at the University of Copenhagen note that flat surfaces of graphene do not appear to exert any kind of force over electron spin that might allow spin-based computing to be made a reality.
In their studies, the scientists instead rolled graphene into tubes measuring a diameter of billionths of a metre.
This had previously been predicted to allow spin to be controlled, but only in a perfect tube, with one electron moving through a vacuum.
According to the scientists, their experiments showed that imperfect tubes with any number of electrons inside them can control the spin of electrons if they are sent along the interior in a helical motion.
Their discovery could make electronic components made out of graphene, which use spin-based computing to carry data, a reality in the years to come.
