A liquid metal reaction environment for the room-temperature synthesis of atomically thin metal oxides

Expanding the world of 2D materials Two-dimensional (2D) materials have a wide variety of potential applications in the electronics industry. However, certain compositions of 2D materials are difficult to obtain owing to the challenges in exfoliating thin sheets from bulk crystals. Zavabeti et al. exploited liquid metals to synthesize 2D Ga 2 O 3 , HfO 2 , Gd 2 O 3 , and Al 2 O 3 . The 2D sheets appear as a surface layer in gallium-based liquid metals after the Hf, Gd, or Al is dissolved into the bulk alloy. The 2D oxide that appears on the surface is the oxide with the lowest energy, suggesting that it should be possible to make other 2D oxides by using the same process. Science , this issue p. 332