Scientists have developed a gold leaf that is only one atom thick

Meet graphene’s newest metallic cousin, golden. For the first time, researchers have created a free gold sheet, just one atom thick.

The development, reported on April 16 Synthesis of Natureit could one day allow scientists to use less gold in electronics and chemical reactions, says materials physicist Lars Hultman of Linköping University in Sweden. Gold foil can also exhibit exotic properties like those found in other two-dimensional materials (SN: 10/2/19).

Goldene holds promise as “a great catalyst because it’s much more economically viable” than thicker, three-dimensional gold, Hultman says. “You don’t need as many gold atoms to get the same function.”

Gold joins a rare group consisting of several elements, including carbon and phosphorus, which are formulated in 2-D sheets (SN: 3/10/14). While two-dimensional sheets of nonmetallic elements—like carbon-based graphene—can be prepared with relative ease, making 2-D sheets of metals like iron and gold is more difficult, Hultman says.SN: 17.01.18). In the case of gold, the atoms tend to form clumps rather than flat sheets.

Hultman and colleagues first made a three-dimensional material called titanium gold carbide, whose structure contains two-dimensional gold foil. They then etched the surrounding material with a potassium-based solution, leaving the gold color behind.

“The good news was that we were freeing the gold,” says Hultman. “The bad news was that as the gold was released, it began to curl in on itself like a scroll.” Keeping the gold foils flat required the team to add a surfactant to the etching solution in which the foils floated.

The team hopes to apply a similar etching strategy to make 2-D sheets of other metals such as iridium and platinum, says co-author Shun Kashiwaya, a materials scientist at Linköping University.

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