Overview
- An MIT- and Boston University–led team reports that 2DPA-1 is molecularly impermeable to nitrogen and also resists helium, argon, oxygen, methane and sulfur hexafluoride.
- Laboratory measurements show gas permeability at least 10,000 times lower than other polymers in films only nanometers thick.
- The material’s stacked, disk-like architecture leaves no interstitial volume, creating near-perfect barriers at nanoscale thickness.
- A 60-nanometer coating extended a perovskite crystal’s lifetime from days to about three weeks, and the team demonstrated a nanoscale resonator.
- Researchers say the polymer can be produced in bulk and applied more easily than crystalline graphene, suggesting uses from corrosion prevention to food and electronics protection.