Discovery of Graphene-Water Membrane Structure: Toward High-Quality Graphene Process

Bioinspired 2D nanofluidic membranes for energy applications

Bioinspired two-dimensional (2D) nanofluidic membranes have been explored for the creation of high-performance ion transport systems that can mimic the delicate transport functions of living organisms. Advanced energy devices made from these membranes show excellent energy storage and conversion capabilities. Further research and development in this area are essential to unlock the full potential of energy devices and facilitate the development of high-performance equipment toward real-world applications and a sustainable future. However, there has been minimal review and summarization of 2D nanofluidic membranes in recent years. Thus, it is necessary to carry out an extensive review to provide a survey library for researchers in related fields. In this review, the classification and the raw materials that are used to construct 2D nanofluidic membranes are first presented. Second, the top-down and bottom-up methods for constructing 2D membranes are introduced. Next, the applications of bioinspired 2D membranes in osmotic energy, hydraulic energy, mechanical energy, photoelectric conversion, lithium batteries, and flow batteries are discussed in detail. Finally, the opportunities and challenges that 2D nanofluidic membranes are likely to face in the future are envisioned. This review aims to provide a broad knowledge base for constructing high-performance bioinspired 2D nanofluidic membranes for advanced energy applications.

Ultrahigh-quality graphene resonators by liquid-based strain-engineering

Two-dimensional (2D) material-based nanoelectromechanical (NEM) resonators are expected to be enabling components in hybrid qubits that couple mechanical and electromagnetic degrees of freedom. However, challenges in their sensitivity and coherence time have to be overcome to realize such mechanohybrid quantum systems. We here demonstrate the potential of strain engineering to realize 2D material-based resonators with unprecedented performance. A liquid-based tension process was shown to enhance the resonance frequency and quality factor of graphene resonators six-fold. Spectroscopic and microscopic characterization reveals a surface-energy enhanced wall interaction as the origin of this effect. The response of our tensioned resonators is not limited by external loss factors and exhibits near-ideal internal losses, yielding superior resonance frequencies and quality factors to all previously reported 2D material devices. Our approach represents a powerful method of enhancing 2D NEM resonators for future quantum systems.

Elastocapillary rolling transfer weaves soft materials to spatial structures

Spatial structures of soft materials have attracted great attention because of emerging applications in wearable electronics, biomedical devices, and soft robotics, but there are no facile technologies available to assemble the soft materials into spatial structures. Here, we report a mechanical transfer route enabled by the rotational motion of curved substrates relative to the soft materials on liquid surface. This transfer can weave soft materials into a broad variety of spatial structures with controllable global weaving chirality and orders and could also produce local ear-like folds with programmable numbers and distributions. We further prove that multiple pieces of soft materials in different forms including wire, ribbon, and large-area film can be woven onto curved substrates with various three-dimensional geometry shapes. Application demonstrations on the woven freestanding spatial structures with on-demand weaving patterns and orders have been conducted to show the temperature-driven multimodal actuating functionalities for programmable robotic postures.

Fabrication of gold-doped crystalline-silicon nanomembrane-based wearable temperature sensor

Wearable temperature sensors with high thermal sensitivity are required for precise and continuous body temperature monitoring. Here, we present a protocol for fabricating a thin, stretchable, and ultrahigh thermal-sensitive wearable sensor based on gold-doped crystalline-silicon nanomembrane (SiNM). We provide detailed steps of gold doping technique to SiNM and fabrication processes for gold-doped crystalline-SiNM based wearable temperature sensor. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Sang et al. (2022).1.