Understanding the mechanical deformability of nanomaterials is critical to realizing a host of next generation technologies like stretchable electronics, three dimensional multifunctional surfaces, and nanoscale machines. Due to their unparalleled mechanical strength and stability, two-dimensional (2D) materials like graphene and MoS2 represent the ultimate limit in size of both mechanical atomic membranes and molecular electronics. Moreover, many of the most interesting properties of 2D materials and new functionality arise from the van der Waals interfaces between layers and in engineering multilayer heterostructures. Open questions include how the interface affects the mechanical properties of 2D heterostructures and how to integrate the outstanding mechanical properties and electronic functionality of 2D materials together. In this presentation, we will examine the impact of the van der Waals interface on the mechanics of bending and crumpling of 2D atomic membranes, slip in nanoelectromechanical drumhead resonators, and optoelectronic devices from crumpled 2D heterostructures. Taken together, these experiments show that interfacial slip strongly affects the mechanics of 2D materials and heterostructures and leads to membranes which are orders of magnitude more deformable than conventional 3D materials.

Arend M. van der Zande is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research expertise is on engineering novel nanosystems from nanomaterial building blocks. He is a team lead on the Illinois Material Research Science and Engineering Center, exploring active interfaces in highly deformable nanomaterials. Recently, he was awarded the NSF CAREER award, and was added to the Clarivate Analytics list of the world’s most influential researchers in 2018-2019. Previous to becoming faculty, he earned a Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell University in 2011 and a B.S in Physics and Mathematics from University of California, Santa Cruz in 2003. He then became a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Energy Frontier Research Center at Columbia University. He has published 41+ papers with >18,000 citations in journals including Nature, Science, Nature Materials, Nature Communications, and Nano Letters.