Carbon in its many forms has always captured the interest of the scientific community. Besides being the basic constituent of all organic life on Earth, other forms of carbon have also gained their fair share of achievements, and among those new forms that scientists have come up with is graffolerene.
A study - published in the journal "Nature" on the fourth of January - spoke about the discovery made by a research team from Columbia University and other researchers, as they created a new version of carbon referred to as " Graphullerene can be described as a material that ranges in composition and properties between Fullerene and Graphene.
Fullerenes are a symmetrical structure of molecules resembling soccer balls, sometimes called buckyballs (Australian Research Authority)
Graphene and fullerenes
We can imagine the structure of graffolerene if we look at the structures of fullerene and graphene.
As fullerenes are a symmetrical structure of molecules that consist entirely of a carbon atom in the form of a hollow ball similar in shape to a soccer ball, and are sometimes called "Bucky Balls".
As for graphene, it is also a two-dimensional material and is considered the thinnest and strongest material known so far, and it is mentioned that its durability exceeds even diamonds, and “graphene” is distinguished by the ability of electrical and thermal conductivity that makes it the best thermal conductor ever.
And speaking of graffolerene, the new two-dimensional form of carbon that is the “cousin” of graphene and fullerenes, we find that it consists of layers of interconnected fullerenes, which have been scraped into ultra-thin micro sheets of grafowlerite crystal, just as graphene is scraped from graphite crystals. .
Graphene has electrical and thermal conductivity that makes it the best thermal conductor known to date (Australian Research Authority)
The "dazzling" graveolrene
In an interview published on the Columbia University website by the first researcher in the study, Elena Mirzadeh, she said, “Superatoms are large particles consisting of many atoms. Other types of molecules have properties that differ according to the position in the molecule, but what we are talking about here – that is, superatoms It works in some way as a harmonious unit, like one huge atom, but its properties can differ from the basic elements that make it up as well.
Mirzadeh adds, "Gravoleranes - which is the new carbon structure we made - consist of supratomic building blocks, but they are also thin layers. This is impressive, because now we can exfoliate the crystals into thin two-dimensional sheets in an interesting way, and this cannot be done with other types." of molecular crystals.
The exciting thing about two-dimensional materials is that they can study and explore quantum properties, such as electrical conductivity, magnetism and superconductivity, and study what happens in a two-dimensional phase or when different atomic layers overlay in various ways.
Like graphene and more
According to what was stated in the press release published on the Phys.org website, the new material proved, immediately after its characterization and testing, remarkable properties equivalent to the properties of graphene, while surpassing in some even fullerenes.
The set of tests revealed a number of interesting electrical, optical and thermal properties.
Like graphene, it can trap and polarize light, as well as being an electron acceptor material that enables it to form harmonious combinations of 'superlattice'.
Compared to the fullerenes, the grafowlerite crystals have been shown to have a much higher thermal conductivity, as a result of the strong covalent bonds within each wafer of the grafowlerene.
Thermal conductivity helps dissipate heat, which is an important consideration when designing devices in general.
All these properties make graffolerene a promising material with potential applications in new types of optical and electronic devices as well, such as batteries and embedded chips.
Gravolorene is a promising material with possible applications in new types of optical and electronic devices (Reuters)
A successful starting point
The discovery represents a starting point for the team to explore the mysteries of graffolerene and learn about its many potentials. The team also plans - from a chemical perspective - to modify and adjust the properties of the standard "gravololerene", and to introduce new molecular structures to it.
While the collaborating researchers look closely at what happens when sheets of graffolerene are combined with other types of two-dimensional materials studied at Columbia University, to see what secrets carbon may still hold.
It is noteworthy that the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 was awarded to Konstantin Novoselov and Andrey Geim for their pioneering experiments on two-dimensional graphene.
And we cannot forget that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996 went to the discoverers of fullerenes, Robert Curl Jr., Sir Harold W. Croto and Richard Smalley.
Could a new Nobel be on the horizon for the team that made this discovery?