Chemistry

2D Materials and Beyond

Since the isolation of graphene in 2004, work on atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) materials has progressed rapidly across the diversity of the scientific and the engineering sub fields. These types of 2D materials available has been ever growing and now includes insulators, [e.g., hexagonal boron nitride], semiconductors [e.g., transition metal dichalcogenides, TMDs], and the additional semi-metals [e.g., black phosphorus]. From these new materials, a wide array of the mechanical, optical, chemical and electric phenomena have been realized in 2D crystals produced using top-down exfoliation, or bottom-up synthesis [E.g., by chemical vapour deposition, CVD). As the 2D material science has become a mature field in-and-of itself, the several key advantages have emerged that can be leveraged for new experimentation and device creation. These advantages include the amenability of 2D materials towards top-down and bottom-up lithography methods, their pliability and ability to be mechanically strained to create new structure property function relationships, and the unique chemistry with the  large surface areas that lead to the  properties that are highly environmentally dependent.