By introducing defects into the perfect surface of graphene on silicon carbide, researchers at Linköping University in Sweden have increased the capacity of the material to store electrical charge. This result, which has been published in the scientific journal Electrochimica Acta, increases our knowledge of how this ultrathin material can be used.
The thinnest material ever produced, graphene, consists of a single layer of carbon atoms. They form a chicken-wire structure one atom thick, with unique properties. It is around 200 times stronger than steel, and highly flexible. It is transparent, but gases and liquids cannot pass through it. In addition, it is an excellent conductor of electricity. There are many ideas about how this nanomaterial can be used, and research into future applications is intense.
"Graphene is fascinating, but extremely difficult to study," says Mikhail Vagin, principal research engineer at the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology at Linköping University.
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