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Condensed-matter physics

Carbon conductor corrupted

Nature volume 458, pages 38–39 (2009)Cite this article

Atomically thin sheets of graphite are metal-like conductors — until they react with hydrogen, when they become insulators. This curious effect could be an excellent model for studying metal–insulator transitions.

In most solids, electrons behave much like particles of matter: they have a mass, and they speed up and slow down in response to forces. But in graphene — the single-atom-thick sheet of carbon that constitutes the basic building block of graphite — electrons move as if they have no mass1,2, and so behave more like photons. In other words, although electrons in graphene can change their momentum and energy, they cannot speed up or slow down. One would therefore intuitively think that electron flow (electrical current) in graphene could never be completely blocked. But reporting in Science, Elias et al.3 show that, when graphene reacts with a small amount of hydrogen, its electrons become stuck and the carbon sheet becomes an insulator.

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Figure 1: Metal–insulator transitions.

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Author notes

  1. Shaffique Adam is at the Condensed Matter Theory Center, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. adam1@umd.edu

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Michael S. Fuhrer is at the Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. mfuhrer@umd.edu,

    Michael S. Fuhrer & Shaffique Adam

Authors
  1. Michael S. Fuhrer
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  2. Shaffique Adam
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Fuhrer, M., Adam, S. Carbon conductor corrupted. Nature 458, 38–39 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/458038a

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