Liverpool scientists discover graphene’s electronic properties in 3D material in boost for green computing

(Press-News.org) University of Liverpool researchers have discovered a way to host some of the most significant properties of graphene in a three‑dimensional (3D) material, potentially removing the hurdles for these properties to be used at scale in green computing.

Graphene is famous for being incredibly strong, lightweight, and an excellent conductor of electricity and its applications range from electronics to aerospace and medical technologies. However, its two-dimensional (2D) structure makes it mechanically fragile and limits its use in demanding environments and large-scale applications.

In a paper published today, a team of researchers have identified that 3D material, HfSn₂, mimics graphene’s fast, 2D electron flow. This ground-breaking discovery offers opportunities for designing materials that are more stable yet that still show advanced low‑energy electronic behaviour. Such materials are attractive for next‑generation, low‑energy logic and spintronic devices, which are central to future computing technologies.

The work was jointly led by Dr Jonathan Alaria (Physic), and Professor Matthew Rosseinsky OBE FRS, (Chemistry), highlighting the essential synergy between physics and chemistry that underpins this discovery. The team used a combination of theoretical modelling and experiments on high‑quality single crystals grown in the laboratory. Here researchers showed that HfSn₂ contains honeycomb layers arranged in three dimensions in a special chiral stacking pattern (similar to the twist in DNA). This arrangement preserves the unique electronic behaviour normally seen only in 2D materials.

These honeycomb layers also allow the material to host Weyl points - unusual points in the electronic structure that can dramatically enhance how easily electrons move. As a result, electrons in HfSn₂ act as if they are travelling in a 2D material, even though the structure itself is fully 3D.

The paper’s key finding is that the way electrons move in HfSn₂ can behave like a 2D system, even though the atoms form a strong 3D network. This means the electronic behaviour can be separated from the actual structure of the material. It also shows that 2D‑like performance is possible in materials that are much more robust than typical layered crystals.

The HfSn₂ study demonstrates how carefully controlling chemical bonding and stacking patterns in direct physical space can be used to tune electronic behaviour in energy–momentum space.

Dr Jonathan Alaria, Senior Lecturer in Physics at the University of Liverpool, said: “Our work shows that 2D‑like electronic transport can be realised within a fully 3D material. Demonstrating this required advanced physics experiments under extreme conditions, combined with close collaboration with our chemistry colleagues. This synergy was vital and we could only uncover these new concepts by uniting theoretical modelling, crystal growth and high‑field transport measurements.”

Professor Matt Rosseinsky concluded: “We asked ourselves, do materials need to be two‑dimensional to behave like graphene, or can we create graphene‑like properties in completely different kinds of materials with higher structural dimensions? These results show the power of chemistry to generate counter-intuitive properties by controlling the atomic arrangements that determine function and suggest there may be broader opportunities to generate two-dimensional high mobility for low-energy electronic devices beyond reliance on structurally layered materials.”

This research forms part of the EPSRC Programme Grant “Digital Navigation of Chemical Space for Function”, an £8.6 million initiative that aims to change how functional materials are discovered. By merging cutting-edge physical science with advanced computer science, including AI and machine learning, the project is developing digital tools and workflows that can identify entirely new classes of materials and evaluate their properties in the context of technological opportunities. The work was performed in collaboration with the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Liverpool, the Max Planck Institute for the Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden, and the Academic Centre for Materials and Nanotechnology at AGH University of Krakow.

The paper, ‘Decoupling structural and electronic dimensionality: 2D transport in a 3D honeycomb chiral stacking’, will be published in Matter on Tuesday 27 January 2026, 11 AM EST (DOI: 10.1016/j.matt.2025.102578).

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