For the first time, physicists have produced a graphene compound consisting of carbon atoms and a small number of nitrogen atoms in a regular grid of hexagons and triangles. This honeycomb-structured »kagome lattice» behaves as a semiconductor and may also have unusual electrical properties. In the future, it could potentially be used in electronic sensors or quantum computers.
Researchers around the world are searching for new synthetic materials with special properties such as superconductivity — that is, the conduction of electric current without resistance. These new substances are an important step in the development of highly energy-efficient electronics. The starting material is often a single-layer honeycomb structure of carbon atoms (graphene).
Theoretical calculations predict that the compound known as «kagome graphene» should have completely different properties to graphene. Kagome graphene consists of a regular pattern of hexagons and equilateral triangles that surround one another. The name «kagome» comes from Japanese and refers to the old Japanese art of kagome weaving, in which baskets were woven in the aforementioned pattern.
Kagome lattice with new properties
Researchers from the Department of Physics and the Swiss Nanoscience Institute at the University of Basel, working in collaboration with the University of Bern, have now produced and studied kagome graphene for the first time, as they report in the journal Angewandte Chemie. The researchers’ measurements have delivered promising results that point to unusual electrical or magnetic properties.
To produce the kagome graphene, the team applied a precursor to a silver substrate by vapor deposition and then heated it to form an organometallic intermediate on the metal surface. Further heating produced kagome graphene, which is made up exclusively of carbon and nitrogen atoms and features the same regular pattern of hexagons and triangles.
Story Source: Materials provided by Swiss Nanoscience Institute, University of Basel. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.