From Flatland to Spaceland: Higher Dimensional Patterning with Two‐Dimensional Materials

Abstract

The creation of three-dimensional (3D) structures from two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterial building blocks enables novel chemical, mechanical or physical functionalities that cannot be realized with planar thin films or in bulk materials. In this Progress Report, we review the use of emerging 2D materials to create complex out-of-plane surface topographies and 3D material architectures. We focus on recent approaches that yield periodic textures or patterns, and present four techniques as case studies: (i) wrinkling and crumpling of planar sheets, (ii) encapsulation by crumpled nanosheet shells, (iii) origami folding and kirigami cutting to create programmed curvature, and (iv) 3D printing of 2D material suspensions. Work to date in this field has primarily used graphene and graphene oxide as the 2D building blocks, and we consider how these unconventional approaches may be extended to alternative 2D materials and their heterostructures. Taken together, these emerging patterning and texturing techniques represent an intriguing alternative to conventional materials synthesis and processing methods, and are expected to contribute to the development of new composites, stretchable electronics, energy storage devices, chemical barriers, and biomaterials.

Epitaxial Growth of Honeycomb Monolayer CuSe with Dirac Nodal Line Fermions

“…2D materials are important in optoelectronics, catalysts, sensors, energy storage, etc., due to their large specific surface area and novel properties . Among them, transition metal chalcogenides (TMCs) have attracted the most attention, owing to their novel properties (which differ from the bulk properties) and the consequent prospective applications .…”

Crumpling and Unfolding of Montmorillonite Hybrid Nanocoatings as Stretchable Flame‐Retardant Skin

“…Potential texturing methods include the utilization of prestretched elastomers and thermally responsive polymers (i.e., shrink films) to harness the interfacial instability during substrate contraction. These methods have been applied to other nanomaterials (e.g., graphene oxide, graphene) for other technological purposes rather than on MMT nanocoatings for fire protection . Although the flame retardancy of MMT assemblies has been demonstrated on planar surfaces and porous scaffolds, the barrier properties have not been measured, either in the textured, mechanically deformed state, or after relaxation or cycling back to the expanded planar state.…”

Assembly and Self‐Assembly of Nanomembrane Materials—From 2D to 3D

“…In line with continuous advances for the synthesis of 2D materials and their (self‐)assembled structures, new fabrication technologies with convenience and low cost and potential applications of these materials/structures have been intensively explored. Similar to aforementioned origami/kirigami structures, researchers also fabricated 3D structures from 2D materials . As shown in panel (i) of Figure c, the graphene kirigami can undergo large strain and pulling the kirigami structure caused the graphene strands to pop out and deform out of plane .…”