Graphene is one of the most lusted after materials in science. Now, a team of scientists have made a 3D counterpart we can use to build things with.

Led by Oxford's Yulin Chen, the sodium-bismuth compound, Na3Bi holds many of the same properties of graphene with the luxury of being thicker. It was tested at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source and was shown to conduct electricity as well if not better than graphene.

"Ever since graphene was isolated in 2004, researchers around the world have looked for ways to take full advantage of its many desirable properties," Chen said in an article published in Science. "But the very thing that makes graphene special—the fact that it consists of a single layer of atoms—sometimes makes it difficult to work with, and a challenge to manufacture."

Na3Bi could change all of that.

Unfortunately, it is still too early, as it is unstable to use in devices in its current form. [Science]