What is Goldene?

About Goldene:

• It is the first free-standing 2D metal and is only one atom thick.
• How it is 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 nanometres 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 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.