The team of researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University, Peking University in Beijing, the Chinese Academy of Science in Shanghai and the Tohoku University in Japan used theoretical computer modeling to design the new material they called graphone, which is derived from an existing material known as graphene.
"The new material we are predicting - graphone - makes graphene magnetic simply by controlling the amount of hydrogen coverage - basically, how much hydrogen is put on graphene. It avoids previous difficulties associated with the synthesis of magnetic graphene," said Puru Jena, Ph.D., distinguished professor in the VCU Department of Physics.
"There are many possibilities for engineering new functional materials simply by changing their composition and structure. Our findings may guide researchers in the future to discover this material in the laboratory and to explore its potential technological applications," said Jena.