Introducing goldene, the metallic cousin of graphene. Scientists have successfully produced a thin sheet of gold that is only one atom thick.
Goldene shows great potential as a catalyst due to its cost-effectiveness compared to thicker gold. It requires fewer gold atoms to achieve the same function, making it a promising material.
Gold now joins a select group of elements, including carbon and phosphorus, that have been transformed into 2-D sheets. While creating two-dimensional sheets of nonmetal elements like graphene is relatively simple, producing sheets with metals such as gold has been a challenge. Gold atoms have a tendency to clump together rather than form flat sheets.
Researchers initially developed a three-dimensional material called titanium gold carbide, which contained two-dimensional gold sheets. By using a potassium-based solution to remove the surrounding material, they were able to isolate goldene.
2024-05-01 12:00:00
Originally published on www.sciencenews.org