Exploration of recently discovered Goldene and attempting Iridiumene as well as Platinumene

This curiosity-driven project aims at creating hitherto non-existing iridiumene and platinumene free-standing noble-metal atomic sheets.

The project springboards from our discovery this year of 2-dimensional (2D) gold; Goldene is demonstrated to exist as layers with a thickness of exactly one atom, prepared by chemically etching off the carbide slabs from Ti3AuC2, which in turn is made by intercalating the nanolaminated Ti3SiC2 (MAX) phase with Au.

We make basic research on goldene, Ir:ene and Pt:ene by exploring a wide range of MAX carbide and nitride host phases for noble-metal intercalation, thus generalizing the intercalation and 2D-layer extraction.

The research includes developing selective etching protocols, and surfactant design to hinder coalescence of 2D layers and enable sheets as large as the substrate. We produce thin-film model samples by magnetron sputter epitaxy.

Analysis is made by a state-of-the-art instrumentation suite and large-scale computing, like with double-Cs-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy and ab-initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations.

By monitoring interdiffusion with in situ TEM we can understand dynamics of exchange intercalation and answer the question if reversible intercalation is possible for this special class of non-Van der Waals ceramics.

The PI’s are champions in materials science and have been awarded with prestigious individual KAW Scholar and Fellow, Göran Gustafsson as well as ERC Senior and Starting grants.