Highly read on pubs.acs.org in July

Graphene, atom-thick sheets of carbon, has a multitude of unusual properties, and self-healing can now be added to the list.

Quentin Ramasse of the SuperSTEM Laboratory in Daresbury, UK, and his colleagues deposited metals on sheets of graphene and then scanned the sheets using an electron microscope. The metals catalysed the breaking of carbon bonds, making holes in the carbon's honeycomb structure. When the supply of catalysts had been exhausted, the graphene healed itself. In the presence of other hydrocarbons, the graphene sheet filled its gaps with variably sized rings of additional carbon atoms. However, if no hydrocarbons were present, the carbon atoms rearranged themselves into their original two-dimensional hexagonal structure.

Researchers hope that the 'reknitting' process can be used to help control nanometre-scale etching of graphene.

Nano. Lett. 12, 3936–3940 (2012)