Creating molecular structures from bilayer graphene and other materials

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel technique called sculpturenes for creating unique, stable sp2-bonded carbon and hetero-molecules by sculpting and reconstructing layered materials like bilayer graphene.

Contribution

It presents a new method for fabricating complex molecular structures from layered materials through shape sculpting and spontaneous reconstruction.

Findings

Successfully created stable sculpturenes with torus topology

Demonstrated the method's ability to produce hetero-molecules

Structures are resilient to atomic-scale defects

Abstract

We demonstrate a new technique for creating unique forms of pure sp2-bonded carbon and unprecedented hetero-molecules. These new structures, which we refer to as sculpturenes, are formed by sculpting selected shapes from bilayer graphene, hetero-bilayers or multi-layered materials and allowing the shapes to spontaneously reconstruct. The simplest sculpturene is topologically equivalent to a torus, with dimensions comparable to those of fullerenes. The topology of these new molecular structures is stable against atomic scale defects.