Nano Horizons: Exploring the untapped power of two-Dimensional materials

Ever since Moore's law and Von Neumann's model were integrated in the early 20th century, they have become the golden rule and design for the semiconductor industry and a milestone for a future revolution. However, as technology advances, both conventional means get threatened as an industry standard. Moreover, as the technological node size decreases to a few nanometers, silicon-based materials encounter critical limits such as thermodynamically unfavorable, high-cost, and non-power-efficient. Two-dimensional (2D) materials have become a game changer in overcoming a current design strategy. A group of exotic 2D materials, from graphene to transition-metal dichalcogenides and MXene, have been identified and developed for practical applications. These atomically thin layered 2D materials possess outstanding physiochemical characteristics, such as electrical, mechanical, optical, and thermal capabilities, in addition to their flexibility. The most distinctive features enable the development of feather-weight and high-performance multivalent applications. In this review, we discussed the (i) physiochemical properties of a group of 2D materials for foreseeable semiconducting industry use, (ii) emerging materials synthesis techniques for device fabrication, (iii) quantitative and qualitative materials/devices characterizations techniques for atomic-scale 2D materials, (iv) breaking the prejudice via defect engineering for future materials design, and (v) the state-of-art prospects and introduction of incoming future electronics. The “Emerging science and technology” of the exotic 2D materials discussed in this review will pave the way for designing and selecting instrumental 2D materials for the future semiconducting industry.