To date, the preparation of free-standing 2D nanomaterials has been largely limited to the exfoliation of van der Waals solids. The lack of a robust mechanism for the bottom-up synthesis of 2D nanomaterials from non-layered materials has become an obstacle to further explore the physical properties and advanced applications of 2D nanomaterials. Here we demonstrate that surfactant monolayers can...

CO confinement strategy for ultrathin Rh nanosheets: CO is introduced as a confining agent to regulate the anisotropic growth of unique 2D structure. The single-crystalline Rh nanosheets have a thickness of three to five atomic layers and tunable edge length ranging from 500 to 1300 nm. By understanding the formation mechanism, surface-clean Rh nanosheets are also prepared and display better ca...

We explore the use of two-dimensional (2D) MoS2 nanosheets as an electrocatalyst for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER). Using four commonly employed commercially available carbon based electrode support materials, namely edge plane pyrolytic graphite (EPPG), glassy carbon (GC), boron-doped diamond (BDD) and screen-printed graphite electrodes (SPE), we critically evaluate the reported electr...

Novel mesoscopic organic nanosheets were developed by functionalizing bulk 2D organic covalent framework polymers with small molecules. The water-soluble fluorescent nanosheets are promising as nanocarriers for biological applications.

For the first time we synthesized mesoporous CeO2 nanosheets with single-crystal-like, ultrathin and uniform-sized structures through the thermal decomposition of specially prepared intermediates of Ce(OH)CO3 nanosheets. The resulting single-crystal-like CeO2 porous nanosheets are only 2.4 nm thick, as measured by AFM. BET analysis indicated that the pores of the nanosheets were centered at 3.7...

Direct current (DC) piezoelectric power generator is promising for the miniaturization of a power package and self-powering of nanorobots and body-implanted devices. Hence, we report the first use of two-dimensional (2D) zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructure and an anionic nanoclay layer to generate piezoelectric DC output power. The device, made from 2D nanosheets and an anionic nanoclay layer hetero...

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted tremendous interest as fluorescence quenchers of dye-labeled biomolecules for application in biosensing. Metal-organic framework (MOF) nanosheets, as a new type of 2D material, have rarely been studied as bioanalytical platforms. Herein, we synthesize a series of ultrathin lanthanide-based MOF (MOF-Ln) nanosheets as a dye-labeled aptamer platform. T...

Copper based ternary and quaternary semiconductor nanostructures are of great interest for the fabrication of low cost photovoltaics. Although well-developed syntheses are available for zero dimensional (0D) nanoparticles, colloidal synthesis of two dimensional (2D) nanosheets remains a big challenge. Here we report, for the first time, a simple and reproducible cation exchange approach for 2D ...

We report the thermodynamically controlled growth of solution-processable and free-standing nanosheets via peptide assembly in two dimensions. By taking advantage of self-sorting between peptide β-strands and hydrocarbon chains, we have demonstrated the formation of Janus 2D structures with single-layer thickness, which enable a predetermined surface heterofunctionalization. A controlled 2D-to-...

High-performance microfibers such as carbon fibers are widely used in aircraft and wind turbine blades. Well-aligned, strong microfibers prepared by hybridizing two-dimensional (2D) graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets and one-dimensional (1D) nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) fibers are designed here for the first time and have the potential to supersede carbon fibers due to their low cost. These well...