Translating graphene and 2D materials into medicine

Graphene and other 2D atomic crystals are of considerable interest in catalysis because of their unique structural and electronic properties. Over the past decade, the materials have been used in a variety of reactions, including the oxygen reduction reaction, water splitting and CO2 activation, and have been shown to exhibit a range of catalytic mechanisms. Here, we review recent advances in the use of graphene and other 2D materials in catalytic applications, focusing in particular on the catalytic activity of heterogeneous systems such as van der Waals heterostructures (stacks of several 2D crystals). We discuss the advantages of these materials for catalysis and the different routes available to tune their electronic states and active sites. We also explore the future opportunities of these catalytic materials and the challenges they face in terms of both fundamental understanding and the development of industrial applications.

Towards controlled synthesis of 2D crystals by chemical vapor deposition (CVD)

Size-dependent shape characteristics of 2D crystal blisters

The layered two-dimensional (2D) materials, e.g., the well-known graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, and topological insulators, have attracted great interest of researchers from fundamental research as well as industries owing to their intriguing properties in a number of aspects. In practical applications, the efficient modification of the features of 2D materials is compelling and essential to achieve desired functionalities. Ion implantation has been successfully applied to synthesize graphene. The most exotic advantage of ion beam technology is that it offers distinct options of energetic beams, which has recently shown the unique capability to modify and tailor the properties of versatile 2D materials. To name a few, the energetic ion beams could implement the surface morphology or layer-to-layer structural engineering of 2D materials. At the microcosmic level, the introduction of ion beam induced defects and intentional doping of specific ions are the basis of tailoring properties of 2D materials. By manipulating the parameters of ion beams (energies, species, fluences, incident angles, etc.), the modified 2D materials may possess novel properties, which are unprecedented in pristine ones. Promising applications based on these 2D materials with ion beam tailored features have been realized in a broad range of fields. In this work, we systematically review the latest research progress on the deployed techniques and property modifications of graphene and other 2D materials under the treatment of various ion beams. A few selected applications are presented to indicate the practical potentials of ion beam modified 2D materials in distinct areas. Perspectives on future developments are also provided by focusing on several promising topics.

Recently, the study of ternary organic solar cells (OSCs) has attracted the efforts of the scientific community, leading to significantly higher performance due to the enhanced harvesting of incoming irradiation. Here, for the first time, and in order to promote this OSC architecture, we review the progress implemented by the application of two-dimensional (2D) materials in the field of blend bulk heterojunction ternary OSCs. Power conversion efficiency (PCE) improvements of the order of 40% compared to the reference binary devices, and PCEs in excess of 8% have been reported by incorporating graphene-based or other 2D materials as a third element inside the active layer. These OSCs combine the synergetic advantages of ternary devices and the superb properties of the 2D material family. In conclusion, the incorporation of the unique properties of graphene and other 2D materials inside the active layer opens up a very promising pathway in the design and construction of high-performance, simply fabricated and low- cost photovoltaic devices.

The application of graphene, a one atom-thick honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms with superlative properties, such as electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and strength, has already shown that it can be used to benefit metrology itself as a new quantum standard for resistance. However, there are many application areas where graphene and other 2D materials, such as molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), may be disruptive, areas such as flexible electronics, nanocomposites, sensing and energy storage. Applying metrology to the area of graphene is now critical to enable the new, emerging global graphene commercial world and bridge the gap between academia and industry. Measurement capabilities and expertise in a wide range of scientific areas are required to address this challenge. The combined and complementary approach of varied characterisation methods for structural, chemical, electrical and other properties, will allow the real-world issues of commercialising graphene and other 2D materials to be addressed. Here, examples of metrology challenges that have been overcome through a multi-technique or new approach are discussed. Firstly, the structural characterisation of defects in both graphene and MoS2 via Raman spectroscopy is described, and how nanoscale mapping of vacancy defects in graphene is also possible using tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS). Furthermore, the chemical characterisation and removal of polymer residue on chemical vapour deposition (CVD) grown graphene via secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is detailed, as well as the chemical characterisation of iron films used to grow large domain single-layer h-BN through CVD growth, revealing how contamination of the substrate itself plays a role in the resulting h-BN layer. In addition, the role of international standardisation in this area is described, outlining the current work ongoing in both the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

In this review, we survey the recent advances in nonlinear optics and the applications of two‐dimensional (2D) materials. We briefly cover the key developments pertaining to research in the nonlinear optics of graphene, the quintessential 2D material. Subsequently, we discuss the linear and nonlinear optical properties of several other 2D layered materials, including transition metal chalcogenides, black phosphorus, hexagonal boron nitride, perovskites, and topological insulators, as well as the recent progress in hybrid nanostructures containing 2D materials, such as composites with dyes, plasmonic particles, 2D crystals, and silicon integrated structures. Finally, we highlight a few representative current applications of 2D materials to photonic and optoelectronic devices.

Molecular dynamics simulation is used to study the thermal stability of the interfacial states of metallic Al, Ag, Sn, Pb, and Hg films (i.e., the structural elements of superconductor composites and conducting electrodes) reinforced by 2D graphene and silicene crystals upon heating up to disordering and to analyze the formation of nonautonomous fluid pseudophases in interfaces. The effect of perforation defects in reinforcing 2D–C and 2D–Si planes with passivated edge covalent bonds on the atomic dynamics is investigated. As compared to Al and Ag, the diffusion coefficients in Pd and Hg films increase monotonically with temperature during thermally activated disordering processes, the interatomic distances decrease, the sizes decrease, drops form, and their density profile grows along the normal. The coagulation of Pb and Hg drops is accompanied by a decrease in the contact angle, the reduction of the interface contact with graphene, and the enhancement of its corrugation (waviness).

The solid progress in the study of a single two-dimensional (2D) material underpins the development for creating 2D material assemblies with various electronic and optoelectronic properties. We introduce an asymmetric structure by stacking monolayer semiconducting tungsten disulfide, metallic graphene, and insulating boron nitride to fabricate numerous red channel light-emitting devices (LEDs). All the 2D crystals were grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), which has great potential for future industrial scale-up. Our LEDs exhibit visibly observable electroluminescence (EL) at both 5.5 V forward and 7.0 V backward biasing, which correlates well with our asymmetric design. The red emission can last for at least several minutes, and the success rate of the working device that can emit detectable EL is up to 80%. In addition, we show that sample degradation is prone to happen when a continuing bias, much higher than the threshold voltage, is applied. Our success of using high-quality CVD-grown 2D materials for red light emitters is expected to provide the basis for flexible and transparent displays.

Compressive solitary waves in black phosphorene

Recently, 2D materials have been intensively studied as emerging materials for future electronics, including flexible electronics, photonics, and electrochemical energy storage devices. Among representative 2D materials (such as graphene, boron nitride, and transition metal dichalcogenides) that exhibit extraordinary properties, graphene stands out in the flexible electronics field due to its combination of high electron mobility, high thermal conductivity, high specific surface area, high optical transparency, excellent mechanical flexibility, and environmental stability. This review covers the synthesis, transfer, and characterization methods of graphene and 2D materials and graphene's application to flexible devices as well as comparison with other competing materials.

Study of the effect of chemical composition on the surface wettability of three-dimensional graphene foams

A comparative study of different types of sandwiched structures of SPR biosensor for sensitive detection of ssDNA

In this presentation, I will focus on the functionalization and nanostructuring of graphite, graphene, and other 2D materials using two approaches. A first approach is based on molecular self-assembly at the interface between a liquid or air, and the 2D material. I will discuss concepts of nanostructuring emphasizing the effect of solvent, solute concentration and temperature, and self-assembly under nanoconfinement conditions. A second approach is based on grafting molecules on 2D materials via covalent chemistry. In addition to a discussion on the functionalization principles, it will be demonstrated how also nanolithography can be used to nanostructure such covalently modified 2D materials. Advanced interface specific methods such as scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) provide structural and other types of information at the nanoscopic level. Figure 1

CONSPECTUS: After the discovery of graphene and the development of powerful exfoliation techniques, experimental preparation of two-dimensional (2D) crystals can be expected for any layered material that is known to chemistry. Besides graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), transition metal chalcogenides (TMC) are among the most studied ultrathin materials. In particular, single-layer MoS2, a direct band gap semiconductor with ∼1.9 eV energy gap, is popular in physics and nanoelectronics, because it nicely complements semimetallic graphene and insulating h-BN monolayer as a construction component for flexible 2D electronics and because it was already successfully applied in the laboratory as basis material for transistors and other electronic and optoelectronic devices. Two-dimensional crystals are subject to significant quantum confinement: compared with their parent layered 3D material, they show different structural, electronic, and optical properties, such as spontaneous rippling as free-standing monolayer, significant changes of the electronic band structure, giant spin-orbit splitting, and enhanced photoluminescence. Most of those properties are intrinsic for the monolayer and already absent for two-layer stacks of the same 2D crystal. For example, single-layer MoS2 is a direct band gap semiconductor with spin-orbit splitting of 150 meV in the valence band, while the bilayer of the same material is an indirect band gap semiconductor without observable spin-orbit splitting. All these properties have been observed experimentally and are in excellent agreement with calculations based on density-functional theory. This Account reports theoretical studies of a subgroup of transition metal dichalcogenides with the composition MX2, with M = Mo, or W and X = Se or S, also referred to as "MoWSeS materials". Results on the electronic structure, quantum confinement, spin-orbit coupling, spontaneous monolayer rippling, and change of electronic properties in the presence of an external electric field are reported. While all materials of the MoWSeS family share the same qualitative properties, their individual values can differ strongly, for example, the spin-orbit splitting in WSe2 reaches the value of 428 meV, nearly three times that of MoS2. Further, we discuss the effect of strain on the electronic properties (straintronics). While MoWSeS single layers are very robust against external electric fields, bilayers show a linear reduction of the band gap, even reaching a semiconductor-metal phase transition, and an increase of the spin-orbit splitting from zero to the monolayer value at rather small fields. Strain is yet another possibility to control the band gap in a linear way, and MoWSeS monolayers become metallic at strain values of ∼10%. The density-functional based tight-binding model is a useful tool to investigate the electronic and structural properties, including electron conductance, of large MoS2 structures, which show spontaneous rippling in finite-temperature molecular dynamics simulations. Structural defects in MoS2 result in anisotropy of the electric conductivity. Finally, DFT predictions on the properties of noble metal dichalcogenides are presented. Most strikingly, 1T PdS2 is an indirect band gap semiconductor in its monolayer form but becomes metallic as a bilayer.