Researchers in Sweden have produced the thinnest sheet of metal in history (gold, in this case), with a thickness of 1 atom. This discovery could have very important uses.
Described by Nature magazine as “Graphene’s golden lime”, Golden is a 1-atom-thick sheet of gold created by scientists at Linköping University in Sweden.
It has unique properties that researchers believe could pave the way for uses such as carbon dioxide conversion, hydrogen production and communications. Shun Kashiwaya, a researcher at Linköping University’s Materials Design Division, explains:
“If you produce a very thin material, something extraordinary happens. As in the case of Graphene, the same thing happens with gold. As you know, gold is a metal. But if it has a thickness of 1 atom, gold can instead become a semiconductor”.
In the past, attempts to create 1-atom-thick gold sheets have been hampered by the metal’s tendency to crumple. Now, the successful creation of Golden was achieved through a centuries-old Japanese blacksmithing technique called “Murakami’s reagent” which removes carbon residues.
For this task, the team used an oxidizing reagent. To produce Golden, the researchers used a material base in three dimensions with layers of that precious metal sandwiched between titanium and carbon.
There was also an element of luck to Golden’s creation, as Lars Hultman, professor of thin film physics at that university, admits:
“We created the base material with completely different uses in mind. We started with an electrically conductive ceramic called titanium silicon carbide, the silicon being between the thin layers.
Then, the idea was to cover the material in gold to make a contact. But when we exposed the component to a high temperature, the silicon layer was replaced by gold inside the base material”.
TechRadar
