2D silica

Two varieties of 2D silica, both of hexagonal crystal symmetry, have been grown so far on various metal substrates.

The second comprises graphene-like fully saturated sheets, which interact with the substrate via weak van der Waals bonds.

[1] 2D silica has potential applications in electronics as the thinnest gate dielectric.

[1] 2D silica is a wide band gap semiconductor, whose band gap and geometry can be engineered by external electric field.

It was shown to be a member of the auxetics materials family with a negative Poisson's ratio.