A Portfolio of Electrochemically Exfoliated Two-Dimensional Materials: From Crystals and Simulations to Electronic Inks and Circuits

Although high aspect-ratio 2D materials show great promise for printed electronics, few have yet been tested in these applications. In this study, we synthesised 28 different 2D materials and used electrochemical exfoliation to produce nanosheets which were then solution-deposited for characterization and device fabrication. Combining theory and experiment revealed that exfoliation of layered crystals with stiffness anisotropy above a critical value (E _in /E _out >1.7) can yield nanosheets with aspect-ratios >1000. Networks of high aspect-ratio, liquid-deposited nanosheets demonstrated n-type, p-type and ambipolar behaviour, and achieve peak mobilities and on/off ratios up to 13 cm².V ^⁻ ¹.s ^⁻ ¹ and 10⁵ respectively (WS₂). However, electrical performance remained limited by junctions, suggesting room for further improvement. The highest-performing 2D materials were utilized to create inverters, buffers, a 4-bit digital-to-analog converter, and a binary-amplitude-shift-keying circuit for encoding and decoding a 7-bit ASCII message. This work expands the range of 2D materials suitable for solution-processed electronics and highlights their potential.