Exfoliation of Alpha-Germanium: A Covalent Diamond-Like Structure

Gibaja C, Rodríguez-San-Miguel D, Paz WS, Torres I, Salagre E, Segovia P, Michel EG, Assebban M, Ares P, Hernández-Maldonado D, Ramasse Q, Abellán G, Gómez-Herrero J, Varela M, Palacios JJ, Zamora F (2021)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2021

Journal

Advanced Materials Wiley

DOI: 10.1002/adma.202006826

Abstract

2D materials have opened a new field in materials science with outstanding scientific and technological impact. A largely explored route for the preparation of 2D materials is the exfoliation of layered crystals with weak forces between their layers. However, its application to covalent crystals remains elusive. Herein, a further step is taken by introducing the exfoliation of germanium, a narrow-bandgap semiconductor presenting a 3D diamond-like structure with strong covalent bonds. Pure α-germanium is exfoliated following a simple one-step procedure assisted by wet ball-milling, allowing gram-scale fabrication of high-quality layers with large lateral dimensions and nanometer thicknesses. The generated flakes are thoroughly characterized by different techniques, giving evidence that the new 2D material exhibits bandgaps that depend on both the crystallographic direction and the number of layers. Besides potential technological applications, this work is also of interest for the search of 2D materials with new properties.

Authors with CRIS profile

M'hamed Assebban Lehrstuhl für Organische Chemie II Gonzalo Abellan Saez Lehrstuhl für Organische Chemie II

Involved external institutions

Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) ES Spain (ES) Federal University of Espírito Santo / Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES) BR Brazil (BR) Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) ES Spain (ES) SuperSTEM (EPSRC National Research Facility for Advanced Electron Microscopy) GB United Kingdom (GB)

How to cite

APA:

Gibaja, C., Rodríguez-San-Miguel, D., Paz, W.S., Torres, I., Salagre, E., Segovia, P.,... Zamora, F. (2021). Exfoliation of Alpha-Germanium: A Covalent Diamond-Like Structure. Advanced Materials. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202006826

MLA:

Gibaja, Carlos, et al. "Exfoliation of Alpha-Germanium: A Covalent Diamond-Like Structure." Advanced Materials (2021).

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