What’s in the news?

• Researchers have for the first time created a free-standing sheet of gold that is only one atom thick. This makes gold the first metal to be formulated into freestanding 2D sheets.

Background

• Due to metals’ tendency to cluster together and make nanoparticles, creating  atom-thin metallic sheets has been a challenge. Scientists have previously produced gold sheets sandwiched between other materials but goldene is the first free-standing 2D metal.

How was goldene created?

• To create goldene, researchers first sandwiched an atomic monolayer of silicon between layers of titanium carbide. 
• When gold was deposited on top of this sandwich structure, the gold atoms diffused into the material and replaced the silicon atoms, forming a trapped monolayer of gold atoms.
• Subsequently, the titanium carbide layers etched away to create a free-standing, one atom thick layer of gold. 
• This was done with the help of an age-old Japanese technique used to forge katanas and high-quality knives. The chemical used was popularly known as Murakami’s reagent.