Two-dimensional materials manufacturing and applications is a rapidly growing field on the nanotechnology horizon. Graphene is one of the first truly 2D materials to be isolated, and ever since its discovery in 2004, it has been referred to as the material of the 21st century due to the combination of its unique properties and potential applications. Since then, there have been a plethora of 2D materials with a wide range of properties, the most notable include Hexagonal Boron Nitride (hBN), Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDCs), and MXenes. It may not be long before 2D materials spark a technological revolution that will truly change the world. Read more to find the Top 10 Graphene and 2D Materials innovations of the last month.

1. Protection from Malaria

According to the WHO, malaria remains the sixth leading cause of child death, particularly in areas with inadequate healthcare infrastructure, killing over 1320 children on an average day. The traditional kit for detecting malaria parasites is less sensitive and insufficient for providing early malaria diagnosis.

To address these concerns, researchers from RWTH Aachen University developed a graphene-based electrical biosensor for the early detection of malaria parasites. In this study, the team designed a reduced graphene oxide-based field-effect transistor biofunctionalized with molecules that selectively bind to the malaria biomarker. The high sensitivity and selectivity of graphene-based sensors in human serum validate their diagnostic potential as rapid detection tests for malaria management.

2. Energy Storage Panels for E-Vehicles and Spacecraft

One of the main challenges of the widespread adoption of electric vehicles is the weight of batteries. A potential solution could be replacing some of the steel body panels with lightweight and flexible body panels for energy storage.

With this, the University of Central Florida researchers have developed graphene-carbon fiber-infused body panels that act as a supercapacitor. The supercapacitor toy car successfully operated using the energy stored in its frame. The team sees potential applications of these lightweight flexible energized composites in the automotive industry, space sector, and commercial aerospace.

3. New Approach to Rebuild Bone Tissues

Bone tissue engineering is a new strategy for bone defect repair, but the difficulties in scaffold fabrication still limit their clinical application. One of the unique properties of graphene oxide (GO) is that when the stem cells are placed on it, they tend to transform into bone-generating cells called osteoblasts.

By implementing this property of graphene oxide, McGill University scientists developed a simple fabrication method of porous 3D GO scaffolds for bone tissue engineering by using stem cells from mouse bone marrow.

The researchers found that by day 10, the cell number on 3D GO scaffolds had increased by approximately 8.5 folds compared to day 1. Undoubtedly, this study has explored a new possible research direction to regenerate bone tissue using graphene medical science.\

4. Multifunctional Flexible Wearable E-Textiles

E-textiles have risen to prominence as a new category of wearable electronics. However, due to cost, scalability, and poor performance, realizing such e-textiles has proven a challenge. To address this, researchers from the University of the West of England in collaboration with The University of Manchester have designed graphene-based wearable e-textiles by screen printing technique.

The e-textile acts as a flexible sensor, monitoring vital signs such as human activities, heart rate, oxygen saturation level, temperature, and brain activity (EEG). Furthermore, graphene ink was used to print flexible supercapacitors on the textiles for energy storage. The highlight of this study is even after 10 home laundry washing cycles, the printed conductive textiles maintain excellent wash stability. These findings could pave the way for truly multifunctional graphene e-textile garments in the coming few years.

5. Nanoscale Microphone for Listening to Bacteria

Imagine if you could listen to the sound of bacterial motion and determine whether they were alive or not after being injected with antibiotics? Delft University of Technology researchers have developed a graphene drum to capture the soundtrack of bacterial motion in real-time.

In this study, the researchers used CVD graphene to cover circular cavities in a silicon chip. A silicon chip with thousands of these graphene-covered cavities was placed inside a cuvette containing E. Coli. The nanomotion of E. Coli bacterium caused the suspended graphene membrane to deflect, which was measured using laser interferometry that was then converted into a soundtrack.

The nanomotion of bacteria rapidly decreases in the presence of antibiotics unless it is resistant to the antibiotic, leading to the different bacterial soundtracks. This development could pave the way for rapid assessment of antibiotic susceptibility to bacteria in drug screening.

6. Ultrathin Flexible Pressure Sensor

MXene, a novel 2D material, is an attractive material for flexible electronics due to its high electrical conductivity, hydrophilicity, and good mechanical stability. Recently, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a MXene-based flexible pressure sensor for wearable electronics.

The team developed a flexible pressure sensor by sandwiching a conductive MXene film between PDMS and copper electrodes. The sensor has a broad sensing range and a high sensitivity. The fabricated pressure sensors can detect and distinguish between various body motion information, such as finger movements, elbow bending, and wrist pulses. This MXene-based sensor has promise in the field of biotech and wearable electronics.

7. Smallest Possible Transistor

Forget about Silicon Valley; it's possible that the future will be found in Graphene Valley. Today, silicon is a critical component of our electronic devices. However, silicon transistors are approaching the smallest size at which they can be effective, which means that the speed of our devices will soon reach its limiting point of effectiveness.

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a novel transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDCs) material, has been reported as a strong contender to replace Si. Recently, researchers from Tsinghua University demonstrate MoS2 transistors with a small physical gate length of 0.34 nm by using monolayer graphene as the gate electrode. According to the author, it will be almost impossible to make a gate length smaller than 0.34 nm in the future. Could this enable smaller transistors?

8. Removal of Microplastic from Water

By 2050, an estimated 12 billion tonnes of plastic waste, primarily microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs), will have accumulated in landfills or will have polluted the natural environment. These MPs and NPs can pass through cell membranes, accumulate in tissues, and enter the food chain, posing a threat to the ecosystem.

To address these environmental issues, a team of researchers from Lanzhou University of Technology China proposed a titanium carbide MXene membrane for the removal of MPs from wastewater. MXenes are an excellent candidate for water desalination membranes due to their mechanical flexibility and superior film-forming ability. According to the authors, titanium carbide membranes demonstrated a high MPs removal efficiency of up to 99.3% and thus have a lot of potential for practical applications in water MPs removal.

9. Novel UV LEDs Technology

UV light has recently seen a surge in demand for disinfecting air, surfaces, and water, sterilizing hospital equipment, and even killing Covid-19 viruses and bacteria. A research team from the University of Michigan has made a breakthrough that could speed up the development of next-generation UV LEDs. They have developed the first reliable and scalable method for growing single layers of hexagonal boron nitride on graphene, using molecular beam epitaxy. Using photoluminescence spectroscopy, the team observed excitonic emission corresponding to deep-ultraviolet photoluminescence showing that it is possible to fabricate 2D quantum electronic and optoelectronic devices on a wafer scale.

10. Flexible Solar Panels

About 95% of the photovoltaic market is dominated by silicon (Si) because of its low-cost manufacturing and reasonable power conversion efficiency. However, the brittle nature and low optical absorption coefficient of Si lead to degraded performance in flexible solar cells. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) combine transparency with conductivity, making them a suitable choice for silicon replacement.

Stanford University researchers developed lightweight, flexible TMDCs (tungsten diselenide (WSe2)) and graphene-based solar cells that can replace silicon in photovoltaics. The fabricated TMDC-graphene cells have a solar conversion efficiency of 5.1%.

The team further projects that graphene-TMDC solar cells could also achieve specific power-up opening up new markets in flexible electronics. This work opens up the window of opportunity to replace silicon in photovoltaic devices in a technologically and commercially effective manner.