2D Polymers and Their van der Waals Heterostructures for Electronic and Ionic Devices

Artificial van der Waals (vdW) solids assembled from 2D crystals represent a new type of materials that can be engineered at the atomic scale. 2D polymers, made by cross-linking molecules into a 2D network, are not only an emerging library of 2D building blocks for making vdW solids but also offer unlimited structural tunability on the molecular level. In this talk, I will introduce an approach to synthesizing monolayer 2D polymers on a large scale. This approach allows for scalable and facile integration of 2D polymers into electronic and ionic devices. The 2D polymer films can serve as the thinnest semipermeable membranes, which deliver a record high osmotic power generation density. Furthermore, I will show the programmed assembly of hybrid 2D heterostructures using 2D polymers and inorganic 2D materials. This approach allows for integrating versatile molecular building blocks into layered nanomaterials to develop ultrathin electronic, ionic, and electrochemical devices.