Growth of 2D Electronics: Development of van der Walls heterostructures for flexible and transparent electronics.

Graphene and other 2D nanomaterials are exciting platforms that could allow us to dramatically improve future technologies. Their unique and powerful properties will have unprecedented potential across a wide variety of industries; from healthcare monitoring to nano-electric switching devices. However, a lot of work is still required to fully understand the growth of these new materials, and eventually get them to be produced outside of a laboratory.

We will focus on the engineering of borophene, MoS2, and WS2 heterostructures whilst also exploring the broader growth of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs). Using new methods of growth, such as metal-organic, plasma enhanced and thermal CVD will be explored as well as the development of new catalysts and precursors. We will also aim to undertake atomic and electric structure measurements to get a better understanding of the electron transport properties of these devices.

As mentioned previously, the application of TMDCs span over a broad range of industries. Firstly, as TMDCs are both flexible and transparent, they allow for exciting advancements in healthcare. A good example of this is the production of a 'bionic eye', allowing for small pixel cameras to produce an image that can be sent to the optic nerve. A second use case would be in the automotive industry, as 2D materials are a strong candidate for the next generation of energy storage. The use of nanomaterials in batteries will allow for higher energy densities whist also reducing the weight and size of components.