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In this Focus Issue, we explore the field of 2D materials with articles on their synthesis, fundamental properties, and the devices they enable.
Graphene and other 2D materials are intensely studied because they are promising for applications as diverse as electronics, valleytronics, catalysis and biosensing. The wealth of available materials is impressive and includes single-element layers such as graphene and phosphorene, and layered materials with mixed elemental compositions such as transition metal dichalcogenides, MXenes, and van der Waals heterostructures. The range of properties that 2D materials can exhibit includes high carrier mobilities, superconductivity, mechanical flexibility, good thermal conductivity, as well as high optical and UV adsorption.
In this collection of Comments, Research Highlights and Reviews, we hope to reveal the recent synthetic developments, the state-of-the-art devices as well as the challenges facing the commercialization of 2D materials, their adoption in biomedicine and other applications.
2D materials hold promise in applications ranging from electronic devices to catalysis, and from information storage to medicine. But how close are we to commercialized products?
The commercialization of graphene-based products is challenging, because many engineering and economical aspects have to be taken into consideration. A stronger collaboration between academia and industry would be beneficial for accelerating the process.
Adoption of graphene and other 2D crystals in biomedicine is challenging — some guidelines to facilitate this process and avoid inflated expectations should be considered.
Field-effect transistors (FETs) with semiconducting channels made from 2D materials are known to have fewer problems with short-channel effects than devices comprising 3D semiconductors. In this Review, a mathematical framework to evaluate the performance of FETs is outlined with a focus on the properties of 2D materials, such as graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, phosphorene and silicene.
The energy extrema of an electronic band are referred to as valleys. In 2D materials, two distinguishable valleys can be used to encode information and explore other valleytronic applications.
Phosphorene is a 2D material exhibiting remarkable mechanical, electronic and optical properties. In this Review, we survey fabrication techniques and discuss theoretical and experimental findings, exploring phosphorene from its fundamental properties to its implementation in devices.
Reducing or even eliminating the need for precious-metal catalysts is crucial for the commercialization of clean energy technologies and various important industrial processes. Carbon materials have recently been shown to be cost-effective and efficient metal-free catalysts in clean energy generation and storage, environmental protection and chemical production.