The reporter learned from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that the research team of the institute has recently successfully developed a single atomic layer of metal with a thickness of only one 200,000th of the diameter of a hair. This is the first time in the world that a large area of two-dimensional metal materials have been prepared, creating a new field of two-dimensional metal research. This material can bring technological innovations to ultra-micro low-power transistors, transparent displays and other fields in the future. The research results were published in the international academic journal Nature on March 13, Beijing time.
In our daily life, the materials we see are three-dimensional, that is, they have a certain length, width, and height, but if one dimension is flattened, it is a two-dimensional material. For example, a book has length, width, and height, and a two-dimensional material is like a single page torn from the book. It only looks like length and width, and the thickness is almost zero to our naked eyes. In the scientific community, real two-dimensional materials are materials with a thickness of a single atom or a few atoms, and the thickness is generally only one millionth of an A4 paper.
How can metal materials be made so thin? This is extremely challenging in the scientific community. Researcher Zhang Guangyu from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, led a team to develop a van der Waals extrusion technology for atomic-level manufacturing. The anvil used in this technology is a material that is atomically flat and has no dangling bonds on the surface. The research team achieved the universal preparation of two-dimensional metals such as bismuth, tin, and lead at the atomic limit thickness by melting the metal and extruding it using the high-quality single-layer molybdenum disulfide van der Waals anvil prepared by the team in the early stage. The realization of two-dimensional metals goes beyond the current two-dimensional van der Waals layered material system and adds a large piece of the puzzle to the two-dimensional material family.
Schematic diagram of the process of preparing two-dimensional metals using van der Waals extrusion technology
It is understood that the two-dimensional metal prepared by van der Waals extrusion technology is encapsulated by a single layer of molybdenum disulfide on both the top and bottom, and has very good environmental stability. This research result is expected to open up a new field of two-dimensional metal research and bring technological innovations to many fields such as ultra-micro low-power transistors, high-frequency devices, transparent displays, ultra-sensitive sensor detection, and extremely efficient catalysis.
- aHPDsDwjJLA03/13/2025