Unexpected catalytic activity of nanorippled graphene.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36913585.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1073/pnas.2300481120 and PMC identifier 10041176.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Graphite is one of the most chemically inert materials. Its elementary constituent, monolayer graphene, is generally expected to inherit most of the parent material's properties including chemical inertness. Here, we show that, unlike graphite, defect-free monolayer graphene exhibits a strong activity with respect to splitting molecular hydrogen, which is comparable to that of metallic and other known catalysts for this reaction. We attribute the unexpected catalytic activity to surface corrugations (nanoscale ripples), a conclusion supported by theory. Nanoripples are likely to play a role in other chemical reactions involving graphene and, because nanorippling is inherent to atomically thin crystals, can be important for two-dimensional (2D) materials in general.