Stickier than expected: Hydrogen binds to graphene in 10 femtoseconds

Graphene is an extraordinary material consisting of pure carbon just a single atomic layer thick. It is extremely stable, strong and conductive. In electronics, however, graphene has crucial disadvantages. It cannot be used as a semiconductor, since it has no bandgap. Now researchers from Göttingen and Pasadena have produced an "atomic scale movie" showing how hydrogen atoms can chemically bind to graphene to produce a bandgap in one of the fastest reactions ever studied. (Science 25.4.2019)