Recent Developments in 2D Materials: Growth, Characterization and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past two years, wafer-scale 2D heterostructures have crossed the threshold from laboratory curiosity to pilot-line production, demanding a critical evaluation of growth–structure–function paradigms. Operando probes now reveal picosecond-to-second dynamics of phase transitions, catalysis, and carrier transport, enabling a previously unattainable mechanistic understanding. Breakthroughs in AI-guided synthesis and characterization are reshaping how we discover and optimize 2D materials, accelerating innovation cycles. Industry roadmaps for flexible/wearable electronics, neuromorphic computing, and green hydrogen highlight 2D materials as near-term enablers—yet scalability, durability, and integration bottlenecks remain. This Special Issue will consolidate knowledge, inspire cross-talk, and identify the high-value research directions for the next five years.

This Special Issue aims to provide a timely, authoritative snapshot of the rapidly evolving 2D-materials landscape in 2025, capturing both fundamental discoveries and the first waves of real-world implementation. By assembling contributions that span scalable synthesis, in situ/operando metrologies, emergent quantum and classical phenomena, and device-level demonstrations, we will achieve the following objectives:

1. Highlight transformative growth strategies that transition 2D materials from bespoke laboratory flakes to wafer-scale, application-ready platforms.
2. Showcase frontier characterization techniques—especially in operando probes and data-driven analysis—that uncover dynamic, buried, or ultrafast processes inaccessible to conventional methods.
3. Elucidate novel physics and chemistries unique to reduced dimensionality, including moiré-engineered quantum phases, intrinsic 2D magnetism/ferroelectricity, room-temperature excitonics, and unconventional superconductivity.
4. Demonstrate functional devices and system-level integrations that address pressing technological needs in the fields of electronics, photonics, energy, environment, and biomedicine.

We welcome original research articles, short communications, comprehensive reviews, perspectives, and data-descriptor papers that advance any facet of 2D-materials science and technology, including, but not limited to, the following themes:

1. Scalable and precisely controlled growth:

• Wafer-scale CVD/MBE, molten-salt routes, metal–organic chalcogenidation, and high-pressure or plasma-assisted syntheses.
• Self-limited monolayer growth, phase/selective epitaxy, and twist-angle control for moiré superlattices.
• Green, roll-to-roll, or solution-processable methods enabling circular economy principles.

2. Advanced characterization and data analytics:

• In situ TEM/STEM, environmental AFM, synchrotron nano-ARPES, cryogenic STM/STS, and ultrafast pump–probe spectroscopy.
• Multimodal correlative techniques and machine-learning pipelines for real-time defect mapping, strain imaging, and spectral deconvolution.
• Operando electrochemical/optical probes under realistic device bias or catalytic turnover.

3. Emergent properties and fundamental physics:

• Two-dimensional magnets (e.g., Fe₃GeTe₂, CrI₃), ferroelectrics (e.g., α-In₂Se₃), and multiferroics.
• Twistronics, moiré exciton condensates, topological states, and flat-band superconductivity.
• Charge-density waves, polaron dynamics, and Coulomb-driven phase transitions in few-layer systems.

4. Device integration and applications:

• Electronics: Low-power FETs, tunneling/neuromorphic devices, and wafer-level heterogeneous stacking.
• Photonics and Optoelectronics: Broadband photodetectors, valley-polarized LEDs, 2D lasers, and van der Waals photonic crystals.
• Energy and Environment: Electrocatalysts for HER/OER/CO₂RR, solid-state batteries, supercapacitors, thermoelectric and triboelectric generators, and 2D membranes for desalination or gas separation.
• Quantum and Spintronics: Spin–orbit torque devices, magnonics, and qubit testbeds based on moiré or defect centers.
• Biomedical and Sensing: Biosensors, photothermal therapy agents, and trace-level chemical detection.

5. Theory, simulation, and data-driven designs:

• First-principles and many-body calculations of 2D heterostructures.
• High-throughput screening, generative models, and inverse design workflows for property optimization.
• Digital twins linking synthesis conditions to emergent structure–property relationships.

6. Reliability, standardization, and sustainability:

• Long-term stability, degradation mechanisms, and encapsulation strategies.
• Benchmarking, metrology standards, and data repositories to improve reproducibility.
• Life-cycle assessment, safe-by-design protocols, and recycling pathways for 2D-material-based devices.
• Maps of outstanding challenges and future research directions—from sustainable mass production to interface engineering and reproducibility—to guide future studies.

Prof. Dr. Dae Joon Kang
Dr. Hyunje Park
Guest Editors

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• 2D materials
• wafer-scale growth
• operando metrology
• AI-guided synthesis
• nanogenerators
• surface functionalization
• flexible/energy devices