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The mechanism by which two-dimensional materials remain stable at a finite temperature is still under debate. Now, numerical calculations suggest that rotational symmetry is crucial in suppressing anharmonic effects that lead to structural instability.
Tuning the instabilities of 2D materials can control their wrinkling behavior for interesting physical properties, but still challenging. Here, the authors report a push-to-shear experimental approach to control the wrinkling patterns of monolayer 2D materials and measure their bending stiffness.
The preparation of atom-thick lattices with Å-scale pores is desirable for achieving ion selectivity and high ion flux. Here authors present a cm-scale membrane made of atom-thick graphene film hosting zero-dimensional pores spanning only a few Å, repaired using an in situ electrochemical strategy, yielding high Li+/Mg2+ separation performance.
Improving mass transfer through hierarchically porous synthetic materials is a great challenge. Here the authors address this by expanding the original Murray’s law, a biomimetic principle defining the branching of veins in living structures.
Graphene oxide is a promising material for molecular separation technologies. Here, the authors propose a realistic staggered stacking structure that plays a crucial role in H/D recognition in water adsorption, as well as high mobilities of water.
A strong and tough human muscle-like actuator fibre is developed by exploiting 2D graphene fillers within a liquid crystalline elastomer matrix. Reversible percolation of the graphene filler network endows the artificial muscle with a work capacity and power density beyond those of human or mammalian muscles.
An article in Communications Engineering reports the upcycling of waste plastics from vehicles into graphene that can be then used as an additive in foams for cars.
Heterogeneous microscale contacts between molybdenum disulfide and graphene or hexagonal boron nitride layers demonstrate ultralow friction independent of their relative orientation with residual drag that originates from edge effects.
Bending of few-layer graphene leads to interlayer slip, and slipping lowers the bending stiffness. Beyond a critical bending angle, the graphene layers bend like a stack of paper, with a state of superlubricity for interlayer slip.