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Versatile strategy for making 2D materials

Two-dimensional materials have potential uses in flexible electronics, biosensors and water purification. A method for producing air-stable 2D materials on an industrial scale, now reported, is a key step in bringing them to market.
  1. Wei Sun Leong

    1. Wei Sun Leong is in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, 117575 Singapore.

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Modern materials science relies on a deep understanding of defects — interruptions to regular atomic arrangements in crystalline solids. Although ‘defects’ brings to mind imperfections and blemishes, they often make a material more useful than it otherwise would be. For example, metal impurities such as chromium and iron atoms in corundum (a crystalline form of aluminium oxide) are responsible for the colours of rubies and sapphires. Moreover, the addition of impurities to silicon has enabled the current era of computing and robotics. Writing in Nature, Du et al.1 report a method for producing a variety of technologically useful two-dimensional materials that contain deliberately introduced impurities, solving a fabrication problem for next-generation devices.

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Nature 577, 477-478 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00094-5

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