Scientists have successfully developed “goldene,” an extremely thin form of gold. This comes after graphene, a substance made of single-layer graphite atoms, was successfully created. According to the Independent, it is incredibly robust and conducts heat and electricity significantly more effectively than copper, earning it the label of “miracle material.”
What is goldane?
Goldene is built on the same concept, where scientists disperse gold until it is only one layer of atoms thick. Scientists suggest that, like graphene, the process gives it a slew of new properties that could lead to big discoveries.
Experts believe the new substance has a wide range of possible applications, including communications technologies, water purification, carbon dioxide conversion, and much more. Furthermore, modern technologies that require gold can use significantly less of the metal.
According to scientists, gold could be one of several related metals. They are researching to determine whether similar findings and methodologies may be applied to other materials.
Shun Kashiwaya, researcher at the Materials Design Division at Linkoping University, said, “If you make a material extremely thin, something extraordinary happens – as with graphene. The same thing happens with gold. As you know, gold is usually a metal, but if a single atom layer thick, the gold can become a semiconductor instead.”
A century-old technique used by Japanese artisans gave the breakthrough
This type of thin gold has been the focus of years of research, but efforts have been hampered by the metal’s tendency to clump together. Finally, a century-old technique used by Japanese artisans gave the breakthrough. It happened partly by chance. The novel material was discovered while looking for something else. According to the publication, the concept is to implant gold between layers of carbon and titanium in a base material.
“We had created the base material with completely different applications in mind. We started with an electrically conductive ceramic called titanium silicon carbide, where silicon is in thin layers. Then the idea was to coat the material with gold to make a contact. But when we exposed the component to high temperatures, the silicon layer was replaced by gold inside the base material,” Lars Hultman, professor of thin film physics at Linkoping University, said.
For several years, researchers had access to the material, which was manufactured using an intercalation procedure. However, they were unable to extract any gold from it. They then utilized a process known as Murakami’s reagent, which is used by Japanese smiths to remove carbon from materials, such as changing the color of steel.
The researchers then modified the technique used to extract the gold. “I tried different concentrations of Murakami’s reagent and different time spans for etching. One day, one week, one month, several months. What we noticed was that the lower the concentration and the longer the etching process, the better. But it still wasn’t enough,” Mr Kashiwaya said.
Because light causes cyanide to form in the reaction, which destroys gold, the etching had to be done in total darkness.
The final phase was stabilizing the gold sheets. A surfactant was used to keep the exposed two-dimensional sheets from curling up. “The goldene sheets are in a solution, a bit like cornflakes in milk. Using a type of ‘sieve’, we can collect the gold and examine it using an electron microscope to confirm that we have succeeded. Which we have,” he said.