News Materials Science

Scientists developed a sheet of gold that’s just one atom thick

It’s unclear what, if any, exotic properties goldene has

A lattice of gold-colored spheres, with each sphere connected by lines to six of its neighbors

Each gold atom in goldene (illustrated) is bonded to six other gold atoms in a layer just one atom thick.

S. Kashiwaya et al/Nature Synthesis 2024

By Skyler Ware

Meet graphene’s newest metallic cousin, goldene. For the first time, researchers have created a free-standing sheet of gold that’s just one atom thick.

The development, reported in the April 16 Nature Synthesis, could someday allow scientists to use less gold in electronics and chemical reactions, says materials physicist Lars Hultman of Linköping University in Sweden.