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Goldene: A single atom layer of gold

liu.se

21–30 of 128 posts

Re: Goldene: A single atom layer of gold

#21

Is single atom thick gold somewhat optically transparent?

I would suspect it is essentially invisible to the naked eye.

It likely only exists in extremely specific conditions, not just like a sheet.

I’m guessing it’s somewhat similar to a microscopic layer around a material that we never notice.

Re: Goldene: A single atom layer of gold

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can see or handle it, it's not a single atom thick.

Graphene is definitely observable every time you use a pencil. It will mostly be graphite, but parts are graphene as well. And if that isn't enough, the tape method of producing graphene also makes a visible layer.

Not true.

Re: Goldene: A single atom layer of gold

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can see or handle it, it's not a single atom thick.

Graphene is definitely observable every time you use a pencil. It will mostly be graphite, but parts are graphene as well. And if that isn't enough, the tape method of producing graphene also makes a visible layer.

Graphite, not graphene.

Re: Goldene: A single atom layer of gold

#29
> part of the progress is due to serendipidy.

Serendipidy means something like unexpected good fortune, but the folktale it comes from (The Three Princes of Serendip - weirdly nostalgic, link below) implies a different meaning.

The princes don't roam around with unbelievable luck; rather, they are aware of the world around them and consider what it implies.

Probably its meaning now has somehow evolved, which is cool. I pay a lot of attention to the (current states of) evolutions of things. I see it as a kind of refinement process, where valuable things persist. So the valuable thing in question is the idea of unbelievable luck and the raw material was a broad awareness of your surroundings and its implications. Maybe, through generations, people came to understand that the latter manifests the former and this realization became reflected in the usage of the word, resulting in its evolved (current) state.

Consider the sum total of all human reason required to evolve this word as the intellect of one person. This superintelligence has then made explicit the idea that awareness manifests luck, which also makes intuitive sense.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:The_Three_Princes...

Re: Goldene: A single atom layer of gold

#30
post #15

[flagged]

Electron microscopes are capable of resolving details that small. Here's a side-on view of what they did. You can see the individual gold atoms. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44160-024-00518-4/figures/1 And here's a top down view https://www.nature.com/articles/s44160-024-00518-4/figures/2 Both of these are from the paper describing their process and results https://www.nature.com/articles/s44160-024-00518-4

Thanks for posting the photos, I don't know why I had this image of perfect square sheet in my mind. Of course it doesn't work like that and they are more like shreds. Very cool to be able to see them.
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