Scotch tape is the key to creating thin diamond films

Scotch tape is great for gift wrapping – and for science too.

With some Scotch tape and a little creativity, it’s possible to create diamond sheets up to five centimeters wide and less than a micrometer thick, a team of researchers reports Dec. 18 in Nature. The adhesive helps release these thin layers of lab-grown diamond from their support, like peeling off a fruit tree.

Diamond has many special properties. For example, it dissipates heat extremely well. This makes it attractive for use in electronics, potentially creating smaller, more efficient transistors or other components. And the material can be used to make quantum computers or quantum sensors (SN: 19.9.22). But creating high-quality, independent diamond films has been a challenge.

So when electrical engineer Jixiang Jing of the University of Hong Kong accidentally peeled off a piece of diamond with an errant piece of duct tape, the researchers decided to investigate further. Jing and colleagues deposited diamond on a silicon wafer using a technique called chemical vapor deposition (SN: 24.4.24). They then cut the wafer to expose its edge and glued Scotch tape to the diamond. When the tape was peeled off, the diamond layer came with it. After the strip was dissolved in a chemical solution, the diamond stood alone.

Diamond membranes can be used in various ways, for example, by attaching them to another material to create layered devices, or by attaching electrodes to them. As a proof of concept, the researchers created a wearable sensor that could detect the curvature of an arm based on the change in diamond resistance under strain.

Scientists have used Scotch tape in the past to create thin materials like graphene, a sheet of graphite made from a single layer of carbon atoms (SN: 3/10/14). Scotch tape is so useful that scientists are sticking to it.