Graphene was first discovered around 2004, and since then it's changed the world of science in ways far greater than most materials ever discovered. But we're at the point now where it's time to move on. Seeing the word "graphene" in a headline is no longer enough to make you want to see what it's doing.
There's graphene but made of gold (goldene), there's something better than graphene (made of boron nitride), and there's the moiré lattice phenomena, which seems about as mindblowing as graphene itself was twenty years ago.
Here are a few examples of how we're going ahead into the post-graphene world, and from now on, news about graphene will be limited to make for other things:
Researchers put a new twist on graphite
Jul 2023, phys.org
Didn't see this one coming!
They placed a single layer of graphene on top of a thin, bulk graphite crystal, and then introduced a twist angle of around 1 degree between graphite and graphene. They detected novel and unexpected electrical properties not just at the twisted interface, but deep in the bulk graphite as well. The electrical properties of the whole material differed markedly from typical graphite."Though we were generating the moiré pattern only at the surface of the graphite, the resulting properties were bleeding across the whole crystal."
Also: "Interdimensional" means mixed dimensional materials, like embedding 2D graphene into 3D graphite.
via University of Washington, Osaka University and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan: Matthew Yankowitz, Mixed-dimensional moiré systems of twisted graphitic thin films, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06290-3.
Navigating moiré physics and photonics with band offset tuning
Oct 2023, phys.org
They started with a mismatched silicon-based bilayer moiré superlattice and adjusted the band offset by varying the thickness of one layer of the superlattices, to find that the offset effectively controls the moiré flatbands.
via SPIE Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Anqing Normal University, Guangxi University, and Nankai University: Peilong Hong et al, Robust moiré flatbands within a broad band-offset range, Advanced Photonics Nexus (2023). DOI: 10.1117/1.APN.2.6.066001
Researchers create first functional semiconductor made from graphene
Jan 2024, phys.org
Where you been - world's first functional semiconductor made from graphene
via Georgia Institute of Technology: Walt de Heer, Ultrahigh-mobility semiconducting epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06811-0.
Unlocking exotic physics: Exploring graphene's topological bands in super-moiré structures
Apr 2024, phys.org
Super-Moiré all day
They're sandwiching monolayer graphene between two bulk boron nitride layers to create a new structure known as a super-moiré structure (whereas regular moiré is just two graphene layers).
via National University of Singapore: Mohammed M. Al Ezzi et al, Topological Flat Bands in Graphene Super-Moiré Lattices, Physical Review Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.126401.
A single atom layer of gold—researchers create goldene
Apr 2024, phys.org
https://phys.org/news/2024-04-atom-layer-gold-goldene.html
Goldene - a sheet of gold only a single atom layer thick
via Linköping University: Synthesis of goldene comprising single-atom layer gold, Nature Synthesis (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s44160-024-00518-4
