Is Goldene the new semiconductor wonder material?
Researchers from Linköping University have developed a material made from a single atom layer of gold, which could transform chip manufacture.
This is Goldene, a kind of 'cousin' of graphene, the atom-thin material made of carbon that was developed in 2004. Since graphene was discovered, scientists have tried to replicate the single-layer process with other metals. Gold have proved especially elusive.
According to the Linköping blog, previous attempts to create Goldene failed due to “the metal's tendency to clump together” and because it tends to curl up. But now the Swedish team believe they have overcome the hurdles.
"We submit that goldene is the first free-standing 2D metal, to the best of our knowledge”, says materials scientist Lars Hultman at Linköping University in Sweden, who is part of the team behind the new research.
The Linköping team believes goldene might be useful in applications such as carbon dioxide conversion, hydrogen-generating catalysis, selective production of value-added chemicals, hydrogen production, water purification, communication and more.
“If you make a material extremely thin, something extraordinary happens – as with graphene. The same thing happens with gold. As you know, gold is usually a metal, but if single-atom-layer thick, the gold can become a semiconductor instead,” says Shun Kashiwaya, researcher at the Materials Design Division at Linköping University.
To prepare goldene, the researchers started with a material containing atomic monolayers of silicon sandwiched between titanium carbide. They added gold on top, which diffused into the structure and changed places with the silicon.
