Superconductivity in Potassium-Doped Few-Layer Graphene

Abstract

Here we report the successful synthesis of superconducting potassium-doped few-layer graphene (K-doped FLG) with a transition temperature of 4.5 K, which is 1 order of magnitude higher than that observed in the bulk potassium graphite intercalation compound (GIC) KC(8) (T(c) = 0.39 K). The realization of superconductivity in K-doped FLG shows the potential for the development of new superconducting electronic devices using two-dimensional (2D) graphene as a basis material.

Synthetic routes contaminate graphene materials with a whole spectrum of unanticipated metallic elements

“…Although we have only examined how these metallic impurities can impact the electrochemical responses of RGOs, it is important to keep in mind that other properties can be affected as well. For metallic elements with higher levels of contamination, potassium doping is known to have profound effects on the electronic properties of graphene (53,54), whereas the presence of aluminum on graphene greatly increases its affinity for gases, such as N 2 O and CO (55,56). Additionally, graphene films have been envisaged to function as water desalination systems because of the potential of tuning pore sizes to allow permeation or rejection of different ions (57).…”

Substrate-enhanced superconductivity in Li-decorated graphene

“…Recently, the prediction has been verified experimentally for Ca-intercalated graphene on either the Si or the C face of a SiC substrate, finding T c = 7 K [9]. Experimentally, it also has been observed that KC 8 graphite [10] and K-intercalated few layer graphene on SiC are superconducting [11], where theoretical arguments for superconductivity in the latter material have been presented in Ref. [12].…”

Theoretical prediction of phonon-mediated superconductivity with T c ≈ 25 K in Li-intercalated hexagonal boron nitride bilayer

“…4,5) The decoration or intercalation of alkali metal increases the DOS around E F via electron doping and gives rise to an additional interlayer band and vibrational modes, which enhance the electron-phonon coupling. The resulting superconducting transition temperature (T c ) reach ∼8.1 K. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] The candidate materials for 2D superconductors are not limited to graphene-based materials. For example, silicenethe Si cousin of graphene -is also predicted to behave as a BCS-type superconductor after electronic doping.…”