2D materials - Page 2

University of Illinois Chicago scientists have created a new platform to study materials at the level of individual molecules. The approach is a significant breakthrough for creating nanotechnologies that could revolutionize computing, energy and other fields.

Two-dimensional materials, such as graphene, are made from a single layer of atoms. Studying and designing these ultrathin materials requires highly specialized methods. The laboratory of Nan Jiang, associate professor of chemistry and physics at UIC, pioneered a new method to simultaneously examine the structural, electronic and chemical properties of these nanomaterials. The platform combines two scientific approaches — scanning probe microscopy and optical spectroscopy — to view materials and assess how they interact with chemicals.

Khalifa University of Science and Technology’s Research & Innovation Center for Graphene and 2D Materials (RIC2D), through its commercial arm spinoff company INTRATOMICS™, and LOLC Advanced Technologies Australia, a subsidiary of the Sri Lanka-based LOLC Group, have announced their collaboration following an agreement on the development of graphene-related products for precision applications.

The joint production of graphene in commercial quantities and development of advanced materials manufacturing marks this phase of the partnership as INTRATOMICS™ and LOLC Advanced Technologies Australia consolidate their roles in this agreement following the earlier MoU signed in August 2023.

Chinese researchers have reportedly discovered naturally occurring few-layer graphene in the lunar samples brought back by the Chang’e-5 probe, which provides new insights into the moon’s geological activities, evolutionary history, and environmental characteristics, broadening understanding of the complex mineral composition of lunar soil and offering information on resource utilization on the moon.

According to the research team from Jilin University, it is estimated that approximately 1.9 percent of the total interstellar carbon exists in the form of graphene, whose morphology and properties are determined by a specific formation process. Therefore, natural graphene can provide important reference and information for the geological evolution of celestial bodies and the in-situ resource utilization on the moon.

Researchers from  Purdue University, University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Japan's National Institute for Materials Science have managed to electrically manipulate a ‘chiral interface state’ in twisted monolayer-bilayer graphene, with potential for energy-efficient microelectronics and quantum computing.

The international research team, led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), has taken the first atomic-resolution images and demonstrated electrical control of a chiral interface state – an exotic quantum phenomenon that could help researchers advance quantum computing and energy-efficient electronics.

Researchers at the Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat, along with additional collaborators, have developed a graphene-based protective film that shields quantum semiconductor layers just one atom thick from environmental influences without compromising their quantum properties. This could advance the use of these delicate atomic layers in ultrathin electronic components.

A few years ago, scientists from the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat discovered that topological quantum materials such as indenene hold great promise for ultrafast, energy-efficient electronics. These extremely thin quantum semiconductors are composed of a single atom layer – in indenene’s case, indium atoms – and act as topological insulators, conducting electricity virtually without resistance along their edges. Experimental physicist Professor Ralph Claessen explained that producing such a single atomic layer requires sophisticated vacuum equipment and a specific substrate material. To utilize this two-dimensional material in electronic components, it would need to be removed from the vacuum environment. However, exposure to air, even briefly, leads to oxidation, destroying its revolutionary properties and rendering it useless.

Researchers from Kyushu University, Nitto Denko Corporation, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Osaka University, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and Samsung Electronics have developed a tape that can be used to stick 2D materials to many different surfaces, in an easy and user-friendly way. 

Transfer process of monolayer graphene from Cu(111)/sapphire to a SiO2/Si substrate using the UV tape. Image from Nature Electronics

“Transferring 2D materials is typically a very technical and complex process; the material can easily tear, or become contaminated, which significantly degrades its unique properties,” says lead author, Professor Hiroki Ago of Kyushu University's Global Innovation Center. “Our tape offers a quick and simple alternative, and reduces damage.”

Researchers at the University of Bologna have introduced and considered a single layer of brucite Mg(OH)₂, a 2D material that can be easily produced by exfoliation (like graphene from graphite), for the creation of van der Waals composites (known as heterostructures, or heterojunctions), where two monolayers of different materials are stacked and held together by dispersive interactions. 

First principles simulations showed that brucite/graphene composites can modify the electronic properties (position of the Dirac cone with respect to the Fermi level and band gap) according to the crystallographic stacking and the presence of point defects. This could be meaningful for various applications, such as electronics. 

The Horizon Europe project 2DNEURALVISION kicked off on 9 – 10 October in Castelldefels, Barcelona. Funded with €5.5 Million from the European Commission, the initiative will seek to investigate the next generation of computer vision and, to develop enabling photonic and electronic integrated circuit components for a novel low-power consumption computer vision system that could be used under adverse weather and low light conditions, based on graphene and 2D materials.

The 2DNEURALVISION project will carry out leading-edge research in the field of 2D materials for wide-spectrum image sensing and vision systems. Its scientific achievements will aim to drive disruptive improvements in the automotive, AR/VR, service robotic and mobile device sectors, which expect to have a major impact on society.

The Australian Research Council (ARC) has announced the launch of the ARC Research Hub for advanced manufacturing with 2D Materials. The hub aims to develop the application of 2D materials for water treatment, batteries, functional paints and coatings and other key areas of economic and technological interest.

“The ARC proudly supports research excellence that positively impacts everyday Australians and this is evident in the establishment of the ARC Research Hub for advanced manufacturing with 2D Materials,” said Dr. Richard Johnson, deputy chief executive officer, ARC. “Among the research outcomes expected to emerge from the hub will be high-powered, low-cost graphene-based supercapacitors, capable of storing energy for use in electric vehicles, as well as improvements in the supply chain of materials used in the manufacturing of these devices, allowing industry to thrive,” continued Dr. Johnson.

Researchers at Spain's IMDEA Nanoscience, Donostia International Physics Center, Ikerbasque and Poland's University of Opole have developed an analytical method to explain the formation of a quasi-perfect 1D moiré pattern in twisted bilayer graphene. The pattern, naturally occurring in piled 2D materials when a strain force is applied, represents a set of channels for electrons.

The team studied the effects of strain in moiré systems composed of honeycomb lattices. The scientists elucidated the formation of almost perfect one-dimensional moiré patterns in twisted bilayer systems. The formation of such patterns is a consequence of an interplay between twist and strain which gives rise to a collapse of the reciprocal space unit cell. As a criterion for such collapse, they found a simple relation between the two quantities and the material specific Poisson ratio. The induced one-dimensional behavior is characterized by two, usually incommensurate, periodicities.