Invented the perfect semiconductor. Electronics will need less gold :: Physics :: www.technologijos.lt

With further experimentation, the material soon acquired even more amazing properties, and it was used in electronics, solar cells, displays, clothing, helmets, bulletproof vests, airplanes, and even shoes. But over time, this material has reached a point of news and market saturation where many are tired of both reading and writing about it. Even now, she takes up too much space in this story, jokes New Atlas.

Fortunately, there may already be a new wonder material ready to defeat graphene. Researchers at Sweden’s Linköping University have successfully created goldene, a sheet of gold only one atom thick. As with graphene, this dramatically changes the properties of the material compared to its 3D bulk form, turning gold into a semiconductor, where regular gold is one of the best conductors.

The researchers say that gold takes on new properties because the atoms in its 2D form have two “loose bonds.” This means that it could eventually be used as a catalyst to convert carbon dioxide, produce hydrogen or valuable chemicals, or purify water. Of course, this could also be useful for electronics, as they would require less gold to produce them.

However, gold did not appear as easily as graphene. Gold atoms tend to clump together, making it difficult to separate them into 2D sheets. The Linköping researchers started by sandwiching thin layers of silicon between layers of titanium and carbide, and then coated them with gold. When heated to a high temperature, a thin layer of silicon was replaced with gold.

The most difficult step is to remove the gold from such a sandwich. To do this, the researchers tested a chemical called Murakami’s reagent, used as part of an old Japanese blacksmithing technique, which etches carbon residue.

Using a low-concentration reagent for up to two months separates gold. Finally, it is stabilized with a surfactant.

Of course, this is just the beginning of the material — and the researchers say they plan to further investigate its properties, potential uses, and whether other precious metals could be flattened into two dimensions in similar ways.

The research is published in the journal Nature Synthesis.