The Thinnest Gold In The World Is Just 2 Atoms Thick

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The prestigious family of 2D materials has just got a new member – ultrathin gold. The material with a lot of promise can be made at room temperature and could be used to develop flexible electronics, industrial catalysis, diagnostics or even while cleaning sewage water.

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Nowadays, gold is one of the key components when making electronics. And since electronics are constantly getting smaller so are the individual components – including the gold components. This is where material scientists from the University of Leeds come in – they created the thinnest gold that doesn't require any substrate ever. Its just two atoms thick. This essentially makes the gold two-dimensional.

To give you bit more precise information – the gold is just 0.47 nanometers thick making it about a million times thinner than a human nail. The ultrathin material was created at room temperature from chloroauric acid. This is an inorganic material that can be created by dissolving in aqua regia and then having the solution evaporate. After adding methyl orange the gold gets reduced into its metal form and creates 2D gold.

The scientists are convinced that 2D gold could find many applications, especially where nano-particles of gold are used nowadays. This could reduce the amount of gold needed in electronics and thus lead to lower costs but it could also become part of flexible components such as flexible displays. Additionally, gold is a commonly used catalyst for chemical reactions in industry. The 2D gold is about a ten times more powerful catalyst than nowadays used nano-particles

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3 comments
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This sounds very good ... I try go find more info and see how this all works :) Thanx you put this up :)

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