Two-dimensional (2D) d-Silicates from abundant natural minerals

TL;DR

This paper presents a universal method for synthesizing large-scale 2D silicates from natural minerals, demonstrating their structural properties and potential for energy harvesting applications.

Contribution

It introduces a generic synthesis approach for 2D silicates from natural minerals, enabling large-scale production and detailed structural and functional analysis.

Findings

Successful synthesis of 2D-d-silicates from minerals like Diopside

DFT simulations reveal structural features and energy harvesting mechanisms

Voltage generation up to 10 V via flexoelectric response

Abstract

In the last decade, the materials community has been exploring new 2D materials (graphene, metallene, TMDs, TMCs, MXene, among others) that have unique physical and chemical properties. Recently, a new family of 2D materials, the so-called 2D silicates, have been proposed. They are predicted to exhibit exciting properties (such as high catalytic activity, piezoelectricity, and 2D magnetism). In the current work, we demonstrate a generic approach to the synthesis of large-scale 2D silicates from selected minerals, such as Diopside (d). Different experimental techniques were used to confirm the existence of the 2D structures (named 2D-d-silicates). DFT simulations were also used to gain insight into the structural features and energy harvesting mechanisms (flexoelectric response generating voltage up to 10 V). The current approach is completely general and can be utilized for large-scale synthesis of 2D silicates and their derivatives, whose large-scale syntheses have been elusive.