An international study, involving the Italian National Research Council (CNR – Istituto Officina dei Materiali) and the Universities of Trieste and Milano-Bicocca for Italy, along with the University of Vienna, has unveiled a simple and innovative method for creating a new category of materials. These materials combine the exceptional properties manifested by individual metal atoms with the robustness, flexibility and versatility of graphene, for potential applications in the fields of catalysis, spintronics and electronic devices.<\/p>\n
The study is published in Science Advances: the method involves depositing metal atoms, such as cobalt, in a controlled manner, during the formation of the graphene layer on a nickel surface. Some of these atoms are incorporated into the carbon network of graphene, forming a new material with exceptional robustness, reactivity and stability.<\/p>\n
The method was developed at the CNR-IOM laboratories in Trieste: \u201cThis is still a preliminary result, but it is already very promising and the result of an original idea that arose in our laboratory and initially seemed unfeasible,\u201d says Cristina Africh, a researcher at the CNR-IOM who led the team.<\/p>\n
The material\u2019s ability to detach from the substrate while maintaining its original structure makes it potentially usable in various applications. \u201cThe methodology has been tested for trapping nickel and cobalt atoms, but our calculations suggest that it could be extended to other metals for different applications,\u201d explains Cristiana Di Valentin, professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Milano-Bicocca.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the material has proven to be stable even under critical conditions. \u201cWe have demonstrated that this material remains intact even in critical conditions, including the electrochemical environments used for applications in fuel cells and batteries,\u201d adds Jani Kotakoski of the University of Vienna.<\/p>\n
The study, which is the result of international collaboration, made use of different and complementary skills. \u201cThis aspect was decisive in demonstrating the effectiveness of this approach, which is simple and powerful at the same time,\u201d concludes Giovanni Comelli from the University of Trieste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An international study, involving the Italian National Research Council (CNR – Istituto Officina dei Materiali) and the Universities of Trieste and Milano-Bicocca for Italy, along with the University of Vienna, has unveiled a simple and innovative method for creating a new category of materials. These materials combine the exceptional properties manifested by individual metal atoms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11783,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[313,301,303],"tags":[410,411,412],"class_list":["post-11795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-our-campuses","category-press-releases","category-research-infrastructures","tag-cnr-iom-en","tag-grafene-en","tag-nuovi-materiali-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n