Stable room temperature magnetic graphite

TL;DR

This paper presents a simple chemical method to produce macroscopic pure graphite with strong room-temperature magnetic properties, confirming defect-induced magnetism in carbon materials.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, cost-effective chemical etching process to create magnetic pure graphite, experimentally validating defect-induced magnetism at room temperature.

Findings

Magnetic pure graphite can be produced via controlled chemical etching.

The material exhibits strong magnetic response at room temperature.

Experimental evidence confirms defect-induced magnetism in carbon.

Abstract

Carbon materials are attracting increasing attention due to the novelty of the associated physical properties and the potential applications in high-tech devices. The possibility to achieve outstanding properties in macroscopic carbon materials opens up a profusion of new striking applications. Magnetic properties induced by defects on graphite structures, such as pores, edges of the planes and topological defects, have been theoretically predicted. The possible coexistence of sp3 and sp2 bonds have been also invoked to predict this behavior (for a review, see ref. 1). Some reports have proved the existence of weak ferromagnetic-like magnetization loops in highly-oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) (ref. 2-3). Very recently two reports showed that the existence of ferromagnetism in pure carbon is unambiguously possible (ref. 4-5). Here we report on a novel and inexpensive chemical route consistent in a controlled etching on the graphite structure to obtain macroscopic amounts of magnetic pure graphite. This material has a strong magnetic response even at room temperature where it can be attracted by a commercial magnet and would be the experimental confirmation for the defect induced magnetism previously predicted.