Graphene re-knits its holes

Scientists at The University of Manchester and the SuperSTEM facility at STFC's Daresbury Laboratory have discovered that the 'miracle material', graphene, undergoes a self repairing process to mend holes.

Graphene is the world's strongest material.

This research, published in Nano Letters, could hold the key in the quest to realise graphene's huge potential for use in fields from electronics to medicine.

Graphene, which is made of sheets of carbon just one atom thick, is a promising material for a wide range of future applications due, for instance, to its exceptional electronic properties.

The team, led by Professor  Kostya Novoselov, who shared a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 for exploiting the remarkable properties of  graphene's, was originally looking to gain a deeper understanding into how metals interact with graphene, essential if it is to be integrated into practical electronic devices in the future.

The researchers were using a powerful electron microscope at the SuperSTEM Laboratory at Daresbury, which allows scientists to study the properties of materials one atom at a time. They recently demonstrated that metals can initiate the formation of holes in the graphene sheet, which could be hugely detrimental to the properties of any graphene-based device.