Peptide-Driven Exfoliation and Organization of Multi-Compositional 2D Nanomaterials

This research program focuses on the use of biomimetic peptide-based approaches for the exfoliation and controlled assembly of two-dimension (2D) nanosheet heterostructures. Recent breakthroughs in elucidating the unique properties of 2D nanomaterials signify that these structures are poised to disrupt current electronic-based materials. To fundamentally understand and exploit these properties, nanosheet heterostructures must be created where the structure, composition, and relative orientation of the sheets can be precisely controlled. While conventional approaches cannot readily achieve such capabilities, we hypothesize that the precision of biological-materials recognition can be exploited to access such heterostructures, to allow for fundamental studies on the electronic and optical properties of 2D material heterostructures that cannot presently be accessed. For this, Biomolecular Exfoliant and Assembling Motifs (BEAMs) will be used to drive the exfoliation of bulk stacked materials into individual nanosheets under ambient conditions. The BEAMs, which are composed of materials-specific peptides and fatty acids (Figure 1), will also be responsible for the dispersion and organization of multiple 2D nanosheets in water to generate heterostructures with control over the size and arrangement of the materials. This will generate a versatile platform for enabling fundamental studies on the basis of 2D nanosheet electronic properties. This platform would find immediate use for a variety of DoD relevant applications such as label free biomarker sensing via Field Effect Transistors (FETs) at unprecedented detection limits, flexible and transparent optoelectronic devices, low density transistors, lasers and other optical devices, etc.