Aug 5 2019
Researchers from Russia and Japan have discovered a way to stabilize two-dimensional (2D) copper oxide (CuO) materials using graphene. Apart from being the chief candidates for spintronics applications, these materials may be used in upcoming quantum computers. The study findings have been published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C.
2D copper oxide material inside the two-layer graphene matrix. (Image credit: Skoltech)
Recently, the group of 2D materials was joined by a new class, the monolayers of oxides and carbides of transition metals, which have been the theme of wide-ranging theoretical and experimental research. These new materials are of significant interest to researchers because of their uncommon rectangular atomic structure and physical and chemical properties.
Researchers are specifically interested in a unique 2D rectangular copper oxide cell, which is not present in crystalline (3D) form, as opposed to several other 2D materials, whether familiar or discovered in recent times, which have a lattice akin to that of their crystalline (3D) equivalents. The key hindrance for real-world use of monolayers is their low stability.
A team of researchers from MISiS, the Institute of Biochemical Physics of RAS (IBCP), Skoltech, and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan (NIMS) discovered 2D copper oxide materials with a rare crystal structure within a two-layer graphene matrix using experimental techniques.
Finding that a rectangular-lattice copper-oxide monolayer can be stable under given conditions is as important as showing how the binding of copper oxide and a graphene nanopore and formation of a common boundary can lead to the creation of a small, stable 2D copper oxide cluster with a rectangular lattice. In contrast to the monolayer, the small copper oxide cluster’s stability is driven to a large extent by the edge effects (boundaries) that lead to its distortion and, subsequently, destruction of the flat 2D structure.
Alexander Kvashnin, Senior Research Scientist, Skoltech
He added, “Moreover, we demonstrated that binding bilayered graphene with pure copper, which never exists in the form of a flat cluster, makes the 2D metal layer more stable.”
Copper oxide rectangular lattice’s preferability to form in a bigraphene nanopore was established by the calculations carried out using the USPEX evolutionary algorithm formulated by Professor at Skoltech and MIPT, Artem Oganov.
The analysis of the physical properties of the stable 2D materials specifies that they are ideal options for spintronics applications.