Nothing in the world is perfect. This is also true in materials research. In computer simulations, one often represents a system in a highly idealized way; for example, one calculates the properties that an absolutely perfect crystal would have. In practice, however, we always have to deal with additional effects - with defects in the crystal lattice, with additional particles that attach to the material, with complicated interactions between the particles. The crucial question is therefore: Do these unavoidable additional effects change the material properties or not?
This is particularly interesting in the case of the two-dimensional material graphene, which consists of only a single layer of carbon atoms. It has long been known that graphene has excellent electronic properties. However, it was unclear until now how stable these properties are. Are they destroyed by disturbances and additional effects, which are unavoidable in practice, or do they remain intact? TU Wien (Vienna) has now succeeded in developing a comprehensive computer model of realistic graphene structures. It turned out that the desired effects are very stable. Even graphene pieces that are not quite perfect can be used well for technological applications. This is good news for the global graphene community.
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