3D-rendered high-resolution scanning tunneling micrograph of Clar’s goblet. Image: Empa
Graphene, a two-dimensional structure made of carbon, is a material with excellent mechanical, electronic and optical properties. However, it did not seem suitable for magnetic applications. Together with international partners, Empa researchers have now succeeded in synthesizing a unique nanographene predicted in the 1970s, which conclusively demonstrates that carbon in very specific forms has magnetic properties that could permit future spintronic applications. The results have just been published in the renowned. Depending on the shape and orientation of their edges, graphene nanostructures (also known as nanographenes) can have very different properties - for example, they may exhibit conducting, semiconducting or insulating behavior. However, one property has so far been elusive: magnetism. Together with colleagues from the Technical University in Dresden, Aalto University in Finland, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz and University of Bern, Empa researchers have now succeeded in building a nanographene with magnetic properties that could be a decisive component for spin-based electronics functioning at room temperature.
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