Low-Cost Scalable Production of Freestanding Two-Dimensional Metallic Nanosheets by Polymer Surface Buckling Enabled Exfoliation

Scalable production of two-dimensional (2D) materials is pivotal to their widespread engineering applications. However, unlike for graphene, h-BN, and MoS2, we still lack a scalable production method for 2D metals, which are newcomers to the family of 2D materials but have shown great potential for various important applications. Here, we develop a low-cost, high-yield scalable production method for 2D metals through polymer surface buckling enabled exfoliation (PSBEE). Compared to the traditional synthesis methods for 2D metals, PSBEE is desirable in terms of its high yield (30%–100%), superior production rate (101–103 mg/h), and low energy consumption rate (107–109 J/g). Most important, PSBEE enables the fabrication of freestanding 2D metallic nanosheets with a thermodynamically stable or metastable atomic structure, a large in-plane size, and unrestricted chemical makeup (from elemental metals to chemically complex alloys), which is incredibly rare in the field of 2D materials.