Adding an atom of fluorine to each carbon atom of graphene produces fluorographene, an atomically thin insulator that could be used as a tunnel barrier in electronic devices based on graphene, and also an atomically precise two dimensional analog of Teflon that could be very useful for applications requiring high mechanical strength and chemical inertness. From “Graphene gets a Teflon makeover“
University of Manchester scientists have created a new material which could replace or compete with Teflon in thousands of everyday applications.
Professor Andre Geim, who along with his colleague Professor Kostya Novoselov won the 2010 Nobel Prize for graphene – the world’s thinnest material, has now modified it to make fluorographene – a one-molecule-thick material chemically similar to Teflon.
Fluorographene is fully-fluorinated graphene and is basically a two-dimensional version of Teflon, showing similar properties including chemical inertness and thermal stability. …
The team hope that fluorographene, which is a flat, crystal version of Teflon and is mechanically as strong as graphene, could be used as a thinner, lighter version of Teflon, but could also be in electronics, such as for new types of LED devices. …
Its potential is almost endless – from ultrafast transistors just one atom thick to sensors that can detect just a single molecule of a toxic gas and even to replace carbon fibres in high performance materials that are used to build aircraft.
Journal Reference (courtesy of ScienceDaily):
Rahul R. Nair, Wencai Ren, Rashid Jalil, Ibtsam Riaz, Vasyl G. Kravets, Liam Britnell, Peter Blake, Fredrik Schedin, Alexander S. Mayorov, Shengjun Yuan, Mikhail I. Katsnelson, Hui-Ming Cheng, Wlodek Strupinski, Lyubov G. Bulusheva, Alexander V. Okotrub, Irina V. Grigorieva, Alexander N. Grigorenko, Kostya S. Novoselov, Andre K. Geim. “Fluorographene: A Two-Dimensional Counterpart of Teflon”. Small, 2010; DOI: 10.1002/smll.201001555
At least for the moment, the full text PDF is available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smll.201001555/pdf
