Designing the Bending Stiffness of 2D Material Heterostructures

2D monolayers represent some of the most deformable inorganic materials, with bending stiffnesses approaching those of lipid bilayers. Achieving 2D heterostructures with similar properties would enable a new class of deformable devices orders of magnitude softer than conventional thin-film electronics. Here, by systematically introducing low-friction twisted or heterointerfaces, interfacial engineering is leveraged to tailor the bending stiffness of 2D heterostructures over several hundred percent. A bending model is developed and experimentally validated to predict and design the deformability of 2D heterostructures and how it evolves with the composition of the stack, the atomic arrangements at the interfaces, and the geometry of the structure. Notably, when each atomic layer is separated by heterointerfaces, the total bending stiffness reaches a theoretical minimum, equal to the sum of the constituent layers regardless of scale of deformation-lending the extreme deformability of 2D monolayers to device-compatible multilayers.

Automated summary

By introducing low-friction twisted or heterointerfaces, the bending stiffness of 2D heterostructures can be tailored, making them more deformable than conventional thin-film electronic devices. Research shows that when each atomic layer is separated by heterointerfaces, the total bending stiffness reaches a theoretical minimum, transferring the extreme deformability of 2D monolayers to device-compatible multilayers.