Goldene

Table of Contents☰

About Goldene:

It is the first free-standing 2D metal and is only one atom thick.
How is it created?
- Researchers first sandwiched an atomic monolayer of silicon between layers of titanium carbide.
- When they deposited gold 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, scientists etched away the titanium carbide layers 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, using a chemical popularly known as Murakami’s reagent.
These sheets of goldene are roughly 100 nano metres thick (a nanometre is a billionth of a metre), approximately 400 times thinner than the thinnest commercially available gold leaf.
Applications
- It can be used in the electronics industry.
- It could also be used in carbon dioxide conversion, hydrogen-generating catalysis, selective production of value-added chemicals, hydrogen production, water purification, etc.
Significance: It holds promise as a great catalyst because it’s much more economically viable than thicker, three-dimensional gold.

Q1: What is Murakami’s reagent?

It is an etching reagent developed for use in the investigation of the structure of iron-carbon-chromium alloys. It consists of a solution of 10 g potassium ferricyanide, 10 g potassium hydroxide, and 100 mL water.

Source: GOLDENE: A sheet of gold that is only one atom thick