Functional germanane could lead to faster chips

The material’s structure is closely related to that of graphene—a two-dimensional material comprised of single layers of carbon atoms. As such, graphene shows unique properties compared to its more common multilayered counterpart, graphite. 

Graphene has yet to be used commercially, but experts have suggested that it could one day form faster computer chips, and maybe even function as a superconductor.

‘Most people think of graphene as the electronic material of the future,’ said Joshua Goldberger, assistant professor of chemistry at Ohio State. ‘But silicon and germanium are still the materials of the present…So we’ve been searching for unique forms of silicon and germanium with advantageous properties, to get the benefits of a new material but with less cost and using existing technology.’

In a paper published online in the journal ACS Nano, Goldberger and his colleagues describe how they were able to create a stable, single layer of germanium atoms. In this form, the crystalline material is called germanane.