# 2D materials: graphene, h-BN, MoS₂, MXenes and beyond

> What 2D materials are: graphene, graphene oxide, h-BN, MoS₂, MXenes and twisted bilayers, their structures, band gaps, synthesis, stability and uses.

URL: https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are crystals only one or a few atoms thick: single layers of graphene, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂), MXenes and many others. Most are peeled or etched from layered bulk crystals, whose layers are strongly bonded within the plane but only weakly bonded to each other. Graphene, a zero-gap semimetal, was isolated with adhesive tape by Novoselov, Geim and co-workers in 2004, and h-BN, a wide-gap insulator, and MoS₂, a semiconductor with a 1.8 eV direct gap as a monolayer, followed (Novoselov et al. 2004; Novoselov et al. 2005; Cassabois et al. 2016; Mak et al. 2010). Stacked in a chosen order they form van der Waals heterostructures (Geim and Grigorieva 2013).

2D materials Published 8 November 2026 Last updated 8 November 2026 56 references

![2D materials: Crystals one to a few atoms thick, from graphene to MXenes (C · BN · MoS₂ · Ti₃C₂Tₓ)](https://www.labcanvas.com/materials/2d-materials/2d-materials-cover.webp)

**Contents**

**Contents**

- 2D materials at a glance
- 2D material diagram
- 2D material structure drawing (high-resolution SVG)
- 2D material in 3D (interactive)
- More 2D material figures
- What is a 2D material?
- Families of 2D materials
- Structure: lattices, layers and stacking
- Band gaps and electronic properties
- How 2D materials are made
- How 2D materials are characterised
- Van der Waals heterostructures
- What 2D materials are used for
- Stability and handling
- Six 2D materials to know
- How to draw 2D materials
- Six 2D materials compared
- Related materials
- More on LabCanvas
- Frequently asked questions
- References

## 2D materials at a glance

| Definition | Crystals one or a few atomic layers thick, most of them single layers of a layered bulk crystal (Novoselov et al. 2005) |
| --- | --- |
| First isolated | Graphene, by peeling graphite with adhesive tape: Novoselov, Geim et al., Science 306, 666 (2004) |
| Next | Single layers of boron nitride, MoS₂ and other layered crystals by micromechanical cleavage (Novoselov et al. 2005) |
| Families on this site | Graphene and its derivatives (graphene oxide, twisted bilayers), h-BN, transition metal dichalcogenides (MoS₂) and MXenes (Ti₃C₂Tₓ) |
| Lattices | Graphene a = 2.46 Å (Castro Neto et al. 2009); h-BN a = 2.504 Å, 1.8 % larger (Yankowitz et al. 2012); 2H-MoS₂ a = 3.16 Å (from its crystal file) |
| Layer spacing | 0.335 nm in graphite (Sun et al. 2017); 3.33 Å in h-BN and 6.15 Å in 2H-MoS₂ (from their crystal files); 8.85 Å in graphene oxide (Zainab et al. 2023) |
| Electronic range | Zero-gap semimetal (graphene), semiconductor (MoS₂, direct 1.8 eV as a monolayer), insulator (h-BN, indirect 5.955 eV), metal (Ti₃C₂Tₓ films, 4,600 S cm⁻¹) (Castro Neto et al. 2009; Mak et al. 2010; Cassabois et al. 2016; Shahzad et al. 2016) |
| Top-down routes | Mechanical, liquid and chemical exfoliation; oxidation of graphite (graphene oxide); selective etching of MAX phases (MXenes) (child pages) |
| Bottom-up routes | Chemical vapour deposition on copper and other substrates, epitaxy on SiC, flash Joule heating (Li et al. 2009; Emtsev et al. 2009; Luong et al. 2020) |
| Heterostructures | Layers restacked in a chosen order and at a chosen twist (Geim and Grigorieva 2013; Kim et al. 2016) |
| Air stability | Graphene is stable in air (Novoselov et al. 2004) and monolayer h-BN to 850 °C (Li et al. 2014); aqueous Ti₃C₂Tₓ oxidises to TiO₂ (Chae et al. 2019) |
| Uses studied | Transistors, transparent electrodes, composites, membranes, catalysis, supercapacitors, EMI shielding and moiré physics (child pages) |

## 2D material diagram

![The graphene family of 2D materials figure: graphene, hBN, 2H-MoS₂, phosphorene, silicene and borophene side by side, a van der Waals heterostructure of hBN, MoS₂ and graphene, and close-ups of hBN, MoS₂, phosphorene and CrI₃](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/web/graphene-2d-materials-family.webp)

The graphene family of 2D materials: insulators, semiconductors, metals and magnets one to three atoms thick, side by side and stacked into a van der Waals heterostructure. An editable LabCanvas template.

[Edit this figure in LabCanvas](https://www.labcanvas.com/editor.html?template=graphene-2d-materials-family)[See the template](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/graphene-family-2d-materials)

## 2D material structure drawing (high-resolution SVG)

![2D materials structure drawn as a LabCanvas Library object](https://www.labcanvas.com/materials/2d-materials/2d-materials-drawing.webp)

A 2D material drawn by the LabCanvas figure editor’s Library: a flat sheet of the graphene honeycomb lattice, every atom bonded to three neighbours. Open it to tilt or ripple the sheet, add vacancies, or switch it to h-BN, MoS₂ or MXene.

[Edit the drawing in LabCanvas](https://www.labcanvas.com/editor.html?add=lattice2d)[Download SVG](https://www.labcanvas.com/materials/2d-materials/2d-materials-drawing.svg)[Download PNG (3000 px)](https://www.labcanvas.com/materials/2d-materials/2d-materials-drawing.png)

## 2D material in 3D (interactive)

![2D materials 3D model](https://www.labcanvas.com/gallery3d/graphene3d.webp)

Loading the 3D model…

A 2D material in 3D: a graphene sheet, carbon atoms as balls on the honeycomb lattice. In the 3D Studio you can add layers (AB-stacked or twisted), ripples, dopants and vacancies. Drag to turn it.

[Open in the 3D Studio](https://www.labcanvas.com/studio3d.html?add=graphene3d)

## More 2D material figures

![Making graphene figure: mechanical exfoliation, liquid-phase exfoliation and graphene oxide as top-down routes, and CVD on copper, epitaxy on SiC and flash Joule heating as bottom-up routes](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/web/graphene-production-routes.webp)

Six ways to make graphene, top-down from graphite and bottom-up from carbon atoms; the same routes, exfoliation and vapour growth, make most other 2D materials. An editable LabCanvas template.

[Edit this figure in LabCanvas](https://www.labcanvas.com/editor.html?template=graphene-production-routes)[See the template](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/making-graphene-six-routes-compared)

## What is a 2D material?

A two-dimensional material is a crystal that extends in a plane but is only one or a few atoms thick. Most come from **layered crystals**, in which atoms are strongly bonded within each layer but the layers are held to one another only by weak van der Waals forces, so the layers can be separated. Graphite is the classic case: its sheets are 0.335 nm apart (Sun et al. 2017), and one sheet of it is [graphene](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/graphene).

In 2004 Novoselov, Geim and co-workers peeled graphite with adhesive tape down to single layers, placed them on oxidised silicon and measured them: graphene turned out to be a two-dimensional semimetal, stable in air, with room-temperature mobilities of about 10,000 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ (Novoselov et al. 2004). The next year the same micromechanical cleavage gave single layers of boron nitride, MoS₂ and other layered crystals (Novoselov et al. 2005), and the field of 2D materials began.

Being thin changes the properties. A single layer is almost all surface, its electrons are confined to a plane, and it can be gated, strained, stacked or chemically modified far more strongly than a bulk crystal. MoS₂, for example, is an indirect-gap semiconductor in bulk but a direct-gap one, emitting light strongly, as a monolayer (Mak et al. 2010).

## Families of 2D materials

- **Graphene and its derivatives.** [Graphene](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/graphene) is one layer of sp² carbon in a honeycomb. [Graphene oxide](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/graphene-oxide) is a graphene sheet carrying epoxide and hydroxyl groups on its faces and carboxyl and carbonyl groups at its edges, the Lerf–Klinowski model (Lerf et al. 1998; Dreyer et al. 2010). [Twisted bilayer graphene](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/twisted-bilayer-graphene) is two graphene layers stacked with one turned by a small angle.
- **Hexagonal boron nitride.** [h-BN](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/h-bn) has graphene’s honeycomb with boron and nitrogen alternating, which makes it a wide-gap insulator (Cassabois et al. 2016); monolayer h-BN has been called “white graphene” (Song et al. 2010).
- **Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs).** Each layer of [MoS₂](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/mos2) is a sandwich of molybdenum between two sheets of sulfur, S–Mo–S (Wang et al. 2012). In the common 2H form each Mo sits in a trigonal prism of sulfur; the 1T form, with octahedral Mo, is metallic (Wang et al. 2014; Voiry et al. 2013).
- **MXenes.** Two-dimensional transition metal carbides and nitrides made by etching the A-element layers out of layered MAX phases (Naguib et al. 2011; Naguib et al. 2012). In [Ti₃C₂Tₓ](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/mxene) each layer is five atomic planes, Ti–C–Ti–C–Ti, with –O, –OH and –F terminations (Tₓ) on both faces (Alhabeb et al. 2017).

## Structure: lattices, layers and stacking

Graphene’s honeycomb has two carbon atoms per hexagonal cell, each bonded to three neighbours 1.42 Å away (Castro Neto et al. 2009). The lattice constant follows from the bond length:

$$a = \sqrt{3}\, d_{\mathrm{C-C}} = \sqrt{3} \times 1.42\ \mathring{\mathrm{A}} \approx 2.46\ \mathring{\mathrm{A}}$$

h-BN has the same honeycomb with a slightly larger cell, a = 2.504 Å, so it is 1.8 % larger than graphene (Yankowitz et al. 2012; Liu et al. 2022); its layers are 3.33 Å apart and stack AA′, each boron over a nitrogen of the next layer (from its crystal file). 2H-MoS₂ has a = 3.16 Å, Mo–S bonds of 2.42 Å and layers repeating every 6.15 Å (from its crystal file). In graphene oxide the oxygen groups push the sheets apart: 8.85 Å between layers against 3.37 Å in the starting graphite (Zainab et al. 2023).

When two lattices are laid on top of each other with a small mismatch or twist, a larger **moiré** pattern appears. For two graphene layers turned by an angle \(\theta\), the moiré period is

$$L = \frac{a}{2\sin(\theta/2)}$$

about 12.8 nm at 1.1°, with about 11,000 atoms in each moiré cell (calculated on the twisted bilayer page). Graphene on h-BN shows a moiré too, from their 1.8 % lattice mismatch, which creates new superlattice Dirac points (Yankowitz et al. 2012).

## Band gaps and electronic properties

The 2D materials here span every kind of electronic behaviour:

- **Graphene** is a zero-gap semimetal: its π and π* bands meet at the K points in Dirac cones, and near them the carriers move at about 10⁶ m s⁻¹ independent of energy (Castro Neto et al. 2009). One layer absorbs 2.3 % of white light (Nair et al. 2008).
- **MoS₂** is a semiconductor. Bulk MoS₂ has an indirect gap; one layer has a direct gap of 1.8 eV and a luminescence quantum efficiency more than 10⁴ times that of the bulk (Mak et al. 2010).
- **h-BN** is an insulator with an indirect gap of 5.955 eV (Cassabois et al. 2016) and strong ultraviolet luminescence around 215 nm (Watanabe et al. 2004).
- **Ti₃C₂Tₓ MXene** is metallic: its films conduct at 4,600 S cm⁻¹ (Shahzad et al. 2016).
- **Graphene oxide** is insulating, with only about 24 % of its carbon sp² (Brisebois et al. 2020); reduction to reduced graphene oxide (rGO) restores much of the conductivity (Stankovich et al. 2007).
- **Twisted bilayer graphene** near the magic angle of about 1.1° has flat bands, giving correlated insulating states and superconductivity up to 1.7 K (Bistritzer and MacDonald 2011; Cao et al. 2018).

## How 2D materials are made

**Top-down** routes take a layered crystal apart:

- **Mechanical exfoliation.** Adhesive tape peels thin flakes and single layers off a bulk crystal. It gave the first graphene, h-BN and MoS₂ monolayers and still gives the best research devices (Novoselov et al. 2004; Novoselov et al. 2005).
- **Liquid and shear exfoliation.** Graphite, BN, MoS₂ and other layered compounds disperse in suitable solvents into thin flakes (Hernandez et al. 2008; Coleman et al. 2011); high-shear mixing scales graphene to hundreds of litres (Paton et al. 2014).
- **Chemical routes.** Graphite is oxidised with KMnO₄ in sulfuric acid (Hummers and Offeman 1958), or more efficiently in H₂SO₄/H₃PO₄ (Marcano et al. 2010), and the graphite oxide splits into graphene oxide sheets in water. MXenes are made by etching the aluminium out of Ti₃AlC₂ with HF (Naguib et al. 2011) or with LiF and HCl, which avoids handling concentrated HF (Ghidiu et al. 2014).

**Bottom-up** routes build the layer from atoms or molecules. Methane on copper foil gives centimetre-scale graphene films that are mostly one layer (Li et al. 2009), transferred roll to roll as 30-inch films (Bae et al. 2010); heating SiC drives off silicon and leaves graphene (Emtsev et al. 2009); and CVD grows h-BN films two to five layers thick (Song et al. 2010) and single-layer MoS₂ (Najmaei et al. 2013). Flash Joule heating turns cheap or waste carbon into gram-scale graphene in under a second (Luong et al. 2020).

Devices are then **assembled**: flakes are picked up with polymer stamps and placed on top of one another (Wang et al. 2013; Pizzocchero et al. 2016), and twisted bilayers are made by stacking exfoliated layers with controlled rotation (Kim et al. 2016).

## How 2D materials are characterised

- **Optical absorption.** A single graphene layer absorbs 2.3 % of white light, a value set by the fine-structure constant, so each added layer changes the transparency by a known step (Nair et al. 2008).
- **Raman spectroscopy.** Counts graphene layers and measures defects without damage (Ferrari et al. 2006); the D band at 1348 cm⁻¹ and G band at 1589 cm⁻¹ of graphene oxide give I(D)/I(G) = 1.04 in one study (Islam et al. 2024).
- **AFM and TEM.** Height profiles measure flake thickness and layer number; electron microscopy shows the lattice, grain boundaries and defects (Najmaei et al. 2013).
- **Photoluminescence.** Monolayer MoS₂ glows strongly where the bulk barely does, a quick test for a single layer (Mak et al. 2010).
- **XRD, XPS and NMR.** Interlayer spacing (8.85 Å for graphene oxide against 3.37 Å for graphite; Zainab et al. 2023), composition and bonding; ¹³C NMR resolves the epoxide, hydroxyl and sp² carbon of graphene oxide (Brisebois et al. 2020).

## Van der Waals heterostructures

Because 2D layers bond to one another only by van der Waals forces, layers of different materials can be restacked in any order, like Lego, without the lattice matching that epitaxial growth needs: **van der Waals heterostructures** (Geim and Grigorieva 2013). h-BN is the key ingredient. It is atomically smooth and relatively free of dangling bonds and charge traps, and graphene laid on it has mobilities and carrier uniformity almost an order of magnitude better than on SiO₂ (Dean et al. 2010). Encapsulating MoS₂ between h-BN layers gives transistors that stay stable even at elevated temperatures (Lee et al. 2015), and graphene wrapped between two h-BN flakes and contacted only along its edge showed ballistic transport over more than 15 µm at low temperature (Wang et al. 2013).

Turning one layer against another adds a second control, the twist angle. Bistritzer and MacDonald predicted in 2011 that at a set of “magic” angles the lowest bands of twisted bilayer graphene become flat (Bistritzer and MacDonald 2011), and in 2018 devices twisted by about 1.1° showed correlated insulating states and superconductivity (Cao et al. 2018), opening the field of moiré materials.

## What 2D materials are used for

- **Electronics.** A single-layer MoS₂ transistor reached an on/off ratio of 10⁸ at room temperature (Radisavljevic et al. 2011); graphene on h-BN gives high-mobility devices (Dean et al. 2010).
- **Transparent electrodes and composites.** Roll-to-roll CVD graphene films reached about 125 Ω per square at 97.4 % transmittance (Bae et al. 2010), and polystyrene–graphene composites conduct above about 0.1 vol % (Stankovich et al. 2006).
- **Membranes.** A graphene monolayer is impermeable to standard gases, including helium (Bunch et al. 2008); graphene oxide laminates block solutes with hydrated radii above 4.5 Å while smaller ions pass quickly (Joshi et al. 2014); monolayer h-BN conducts thermal protons (Hu et al. 2014).
- **Catalysis.** The edges of MoS₂ layers catalyse hydrogen evolution, with activity linear in the number of edge sites (Jaramillo et al. 2007).
- **Energy storage.** Ti₃C₂Tₓ “clay” films reach volumetric capacitances up to 900 F cm⁻³ (Ghidiu et al. 2014), and metallic 1T-MoS₂ nanosheets make supercapacitor electrodes (Acerce et al. 2015).
- **Shielding and optics.** A 45 µm Ti₃C₂Tₓ film blocks 92 dB of electromagnetic interference (Shahzad et al. 2016); h-BN emits deep-ultraviolet light at 215 nm (Watanabe et al. 2004).
- **Fundamental physics.** The quantum Hall effect in graphene (Zhang et al. 2005) and superconductivity in magic-angle twisted bilayers (Cao et al. 2018).

## Stability and handling

Stability differs a lot across the family. Graphene is stable in air (Novoselov et al. 2004), stiff and strong, with a Young’s modulus of 1.0 TPa (Lee et al. 2008), and monolayer h-BN withstands heating in air up to 850 °C (Li et al. 2014). Many other 2D materials are more delicate, which is one reason they are encapsulated in h-BN (Lee et al. 2015). Aqueous Ti₃C₂Tₓ MXene colloids oxidise to titanium dioxide under ambient conditions, but stored at −80 °C they stay chemically stable for more than 39 weeks (Chae et al. 2019). Graphene oxide disperses in water as single sheets, while reduced sheets aggregate (Dreyer et al. 2010; Stankovich et al. 2007).

## Six 2D materials to know

- [Graphene](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/graphene): one layer of sp² carbon, a zero-gap semimetal with mobilities of about 10,000 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ at room temperature (Novoselov et al. 2004).
- [Graphene oxide](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/graphene-oxide): graphene carrying oxygen groups, made by oxidising graphite; water-dispersible and reducible to rGO (Hummers and Offeman 1958; Dreyer et al. 2010).
- [Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN)](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/h-bn): the insulating honeycomb, indirect gap 5.955 eV, and the substrate of choice for 2D devices (Cassabois et al. 2016; Dean et al. 2010).
- [MoS₂](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/mos2): a transition metal dichalcogenide with a 1.8 eV direct gap as a monolayer (Mak et al. 2010).
- [MXene (Ti₃C₂Tₓ)](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/mxene): a conductive, hydrophilic titanium carbide etched from Ti₃AlC₂ (Naguib et al. 2011).
- [Twisted bilayer graphene](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/twisted-bilayer-graphene): two graphene layers at the magic angle of about 1.1°, a correlated insulator and superconductor (Cao et al. 2018).

## How to draw 2D materials

For a paper, slide or poster, show a 2D material as a single sheet seen in perspective, a side view of the stack with the layer spacing, and, for devices, the heterostructure layer by layer. The family figure above shows graphene, h-BN, MoS₂ and their relatives side by side and stacked, and the production figure the routes to make them; both open as editable LabCanvas figures. The structure drawing is a high-resolution SVG of the honeycomb lattice from the LabCanvas figure editor’s Library, which switches the same object between graphene, h-BN, MoS₂ and MXene. The 3D model opens in the LabCanvas 3D Studio, where you can add layers, twist them, and add ripples, dopants and vacancies before exporting a high-resolution image.

## Six 2D materials compared

| Material | Composition | One layer | Lattice and layer spacing | Band gap or electronic character | Usually made by | Key report |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Graphene | C | Flat honeycomb of carbon, one atom thick | a = 2.46 Å; 0.335 nm between layers in graphite | Zero-gap semimetal (Dirac cones); about 10,000 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ | Tape exfoliation of graphite; CVD on Cu; SiC; liquid exfoliation | Novoselov et al., Science 2004 |
| Graphene oxide | C, O, H (no fixed formula) | Graphene sheet carrying epoxides and hydroxyls; carboxyls at the edges | 8.85 Å between layers | Insulating, about 24 % sp² carbon; reduction (rGO) restores much of the conductivity | Oxidising graphite (Hummers method), then exfoliation in water | Hummers & Offeman, JACS 1958 |
| h-BN | BN | Flat honeycomb of alternating B and N | a = 2.504 Å; 3.33 Å between layers | Insulator, indirect gap 5.955 eV | Exfoliating high-pressure crystals; CVD | Dean et al., Nat. Nanotechnol. 2010 |
| MoS₂ (2H) | MoS₂ | S–Mo–S sandwich, Mo in trigonal prisms | a = 3.16 Å; 6.15 Å between layers | Semiconductor: indirect in bulk, direct 1.8 eV as one layer | Exfoliation; CVD | Mak et al., PRL 2010 |
| MXene (Ti₃C₂Tₓ) | Ti₃C₂ with –O, –OH, –F | Ti–C–Ti–C–Ti, both faces terminated | — | Metallic; films 4,600 S cm⁻¹ | Etching Al out of Ti₃AlC₂ (HF, or LiF + HCl) | Naguib et al., Adv. Mater. 2011 |
| Twisted bilayer graphene | C | Two graphene layers turned by θ | Moiré period 12.8 nm at 1.1°; about 0.335 nm between layers | Flat bands at the magic angle; correlated insulator and superconductor (up to 1.7 K) | Stacking exfoliated graphene with controlled rotation | Cao et al., Nature 2018 |

## Related materials

[![Graphene: One layer of sp² carbon in a honeycomb (C)](https://www.labcanvas.com/materials/graphene/graphene-cover.webp) 2D material C Graphene Graphene structure explained: the one-atom-thick honeycomb of sp² carbon, its Dirac bands, strength and conductivity, how it is made and used. Cited facts.](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/graphene)

[![Graphene oxide: Graphene sheets carrying oxygen groups (C · O · H)](https://www.labcanvas.com/materials/graphene-oxide/graphene-oxide-cover.webp) 2D material C · O · H Graphene oxide Graphene oxide structure explained: graphene with epoxide, hydroxyl and carboxyl groups, made by the Hummers method and reduced to rGO. Cited facts, figures.](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/graphene-oxide)

[![h-BN: Boron and nitrogen in a honeycomb: white graphene (BN)](https://www.labcanvas.com/materials/h-bn/h-bn-cover.webp) 2D material BN Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), “white graphene”: its B–N honeycomb structure, ~6 eV band gap, how it is made and why 2D devices sit on it. Editable figures.](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/h-bn)

[![MoS₂: Molybdenum between two sulfur layers (MoS₂)](https://www.labcanvas.com/materials/mos2/mos2-cover.webp) 2D material MoS₂ MoS₂ (molybdenum disulfide) MoS₂ structure and band gap: the S–Mo–S layer, 2H and 1T phases, the 1.8 eV direct gap of monolayer MoS₂, transistors and HER catalysis. Editable figures.](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/mos2)

[![MXene: Titanium carbide sheets with surface terminations (Ti₃C₂Tₓ)](https://www.labcanvas.com/materials/mxene/mxene-cover.webp) 2D material Ti₃C₂Tₓ MXene (Ti₃C₂Tₓ) MXene Ti₃C₂Tₓ explained: 2D titanium carbide etched from the MAX phase Ti₃AlC₂, its surface terminations, synthesis, conductivity and uses. Editable figures.](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/mxene)

[![Twisted bilayer graphene: Two graphene layers twisted into a moiré (C · θ ≈ 1.1°)](https://www.labcanvas.com/materials/twisted-bilayer-graphene/twisted-bilayer-graphene-cover.webp) 2D material C · θ ≈ 1.1° Twisted bilayer graphene Twisted bilayer graphene explained: two layers turned by a small angle, the moiré, the 1.1° magic angle, flat bands and superconductivity. Cited papers.](https://www.labcanvas.com/2d-materials/twisted-bilayer-graphene)

## More on LabCanvas

- [The graphene family of 2D materials](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/graphene-family-2d-materials): Editable figure template
- [Making graphene: six routes compared](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research/making-graphene-six-routes-compared): Editable figure template
- [More figure templates in this category](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/graphene-research): Ready-made, cited figures to edit
- [Characterisation techniques explained](https://www.labcanvas.com/techniques): XRD, XPS, BET, SEM, TEM, NMR, FTIR, Raman and more
- [Crystal structure figure software compared](https://www.labcanvas.com/blog/crystal-structure-visualization-software): VESTA, Mercury, CrystalMaker, Avogadro and LabCanvas
- [XRD Scherrer crystallite size calculator](https://www.labcanvas.com/tools/xrd-scherrer-calculator): Free tool
- [Molar mass calculator](https://www.labcanvas.com/tools/molar-mass-calculator): Free tool
- [Journal figure size guide](https://www.labcanvas.com/blog/journal-figure-size-guide): Column widths and resolutions for 38 journals
- [3D models gallery](https://www.labcanvas.com/gallery): Turn MOFs, COFs, perovskites and more in 3D

## Frequently asked questions

### What are 2D materials?

Crystals only one or a few atoms thick, such as graphene, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), MoS₂ and MXenes. Most are single layers of layered bulk crystals whose layers are held together only by weak van der Waals forces (Novoselov et al. 2004; Novoselov et al. 2005).

### What was the first 2D material?

Graphene, isolated in 2004 by Novoselov, Geim and co-workers, who peeled graphite with adhesive tape and measured single layers (Novoselov et al. 2004). Single layers of boron nitride, MoS₂ and other crystals followed in 2005 (Novoselov et al. 2005).

### What are examples of 2D materials?

Graphene and graphene oxide, hexagonal boron nitride, transition metal dichalcogenides such as MoS₂, MXenes such as Ti₃C₂Tₓ, and stacks of them such as twisted bilayer graphene. Others include phosphorene and 2D magnets.

### What is the band gap of 2D materials?

It ranges from zero to about 6 eV: graphene has no band gap, monolayer MoS₂ has a direct gap of 1.8 eV (Mak et al. 2010), and h-BN an indirect gap of 5.955 eV (Cassabois et al. 2016). Ti₃C₂Tₓ MXene is metallic (Shahzad et al. 2016).

### How are 2D materials made?

Top-down by mechanical, liquid or chemical exfoliation of layered crystals, by oxidising graphite (graphene oxide) or by etching MAX phases (MXenes); bottom-up by chemical vapour deposition, for example graphene on copper and MoS₂ on substrates, or epitaxy on SiC (Novoselov et al. 2004; Coleman et al. 2011; Naguib et al. 2011; Li et al. 2009; Najmaei et al. 2013).

### What is a van der Waals heterostructure?

A stack of different 2D layers, such as graphene, h-BN and MoS₂, assembled in a chosen order. The layers are held together by van der Waals forces, so they do not need matching lattices (Geim and Grigorieva 2013). Graphene on h-BN has much higher mobility than on SiO₂ (Dean et al. 2010).

### Why is h-BN used with graphene?

h-BN is an atomically smooth insulator, relatively free of dangling bonds and charge traps, with a lattice only 1.8 % larger than graphene’s. Graphene on h-BN has mobilities and carrier uniformity almost an order of magnitude better than on SiO₂ (Dean et al. 2010; Yankowitz et al. 2012).

### Are 2D materials stable in air?

Graphene is stable in air (Novoselov et al. 2004) and monolayer h-BN withstands heating in air to 850 °C (Li et al. 2014), but others are more delicate: aqueous Ti₃C₂Tₓ MXene oxidises to TiO₂ under ambient conditions (Chae et al. 2019), and sensitive layers are often encapsulated in h-BN (Lee et al. 2015).

### What are 2D materials used for?

Transistors and optoelectronics, transparent electrodes, conductive composites, membranes, hydrogen evolution catalysts, supercapacitors, electromagnetic shielding and moiré quantum physics (Radisavljevic et al. 2011; Bae et al. 2010; Joshi et al. 2014; Jaramillo et al. 2007; Ghidiu et al. 2014; Shahzad et al. 2016; Cao et al. 2018).

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**Contents**

- 2D materials at a glance
- 2D material diagram
- 2D material structure drawing (high-resolution SVG)
- 2D material in 3D (interactive)
- More 2D material figures
- What is a 2D material?
- Families of 2D materials
- Structure: lattices, layers and stacking
- Band gaps and electronic properties
- How 2D materials are made
- How 2D materials are characterised
- Van der Waals heterostructures
- What 2D materials are used for
- Stability and handling
- Six 2D materials to know
- How to draw 2D materials
- Six 2D materials compared
- Related materials
- More on LabCanvas
- Frequently asked questions
- References