Graphene and other atom-thin crystals can now be stacked like microscopic sheets of paper to create entirely new materials with custom-built properties. This "atomic LEGO" approach, pioneered at the UK's National Graphene Institute, lets researchers combine layers of conductive graphene, insulating boron nitride, semiconducting molybdenum disulfide, and dozens of other two-dimensional crystals into vertical stacks called van der Waals heterostructures. The problem is that discovering new materials traditionally takes years of trial and error. This method accelerates that process dramatically. By physically lifting and reassembling atom-thin layers from bulk crystals, researchers can rapidly test which combinations produce useful properties—such as light emission, electrical switching, or magnetic behaviour—before scaling up production. If successful, this approach could transform how we build next-generation electronics. The same heterostructure, just a few nanometres thick, might combine a light-emitting diode, a photodetector, and a chemical sensor into a single flexible device. Potential applications include ultra-thin displays, wearable health monitors, and more efficient solar cells. The work is primarily fundamental science—understanding how these layered materials interact—but the daily stream of proof-of-concept devices from labs worldwide suggests practical payoffs are close behind.
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The advent of 2D materials (2DM), pioneered in the UK with the discovery of graphene at the University of Manchester, has opened a new avenue in materials science. Derived from bulk layered crystals with covalent intra-layer bonds and a weak van der Waals (vdW) interlayer coupling, 2DM offer an opportunity to create new hybrid "materials on demand" with properties tailored to particular applications, by combining different atomically thin layers into heterostructures. The family of such crystals includes graphene, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), phosphorene, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD, such as MoS2, MoSe2, WS2,WSe2, NbSe2, etc), post-transition metal chalcogenides (InSe, GaSe), metal tri-halides (CrI3, CrBr3, CrCl3), among many others already separated from bulk crystals by mechanical exfoliation, or grown epitaxially in the form of monolayer or bilayer crystals. Collectively, these van der Waals materials cover a wide range of properties, from conductive to insulating, from transparent to opaque, from diamagnetic to ferromagnetic, from mechanically stiff to compliant, and their heterostructures have already been shown to offer various appealing functionalities including tunnelling transistors, light emitting diodes, photodetectors, and various sensors. The opportunities created by this new approach to materials discovery are almost endless, as proven by dozens of research and proof-of-concept publications appearing in academic press daily and hundreds of patents annually. In order to speed up the new materials discovery and optimise the choice of materials in heterostructures, at National Graphene Institute we use 'atomic LEGO' approach by creating heterostructures of 2D layers lifted from bulk crystals to understand their properties and, then, to create bespoke devices where several functionalities (e.g., optoelectronic or/and sensing) are combined within only few nanometre thickness of the hybrid material. This way, we are able to identify quickly and cost efficiently the promising systems for applications, so that those could be later studied subject to the top-down mass production methods (such as printing from inks, CVD or MBE growth). By combining the unique expertise and capability of NGI with complementary expertise and capabilities of C2DM and CIQM, NGI will secure UK's world-leading position in 2DM S&T for the next decade.
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