The bending process of 2D materials, subject to an external force, is investigated, and applied to graphene, molybdenum disulphide (MoS ₂ ), and imogolite.

Nanoparticles are ubiquitous in nature and are increasingly important for technology. They are subject to bombardment by ionizing radiation in a diverse range of environments. In particular, nanodiamonds represent a variety of nanoparticles of significant fundamental and applied interest. Here we present a combined experimental and computational study of the behaviour of nanodiamonds under irradiation by xenon ions. Unexpectedly, we observed a pronounced size effect on the radiation resistance of the nanodiamonds: particles larger than 8 nm behave similarly to macroscopic diamond (i.e. characterized by high radiation resistance) whereas smaller particles can be completely destroyed by a single impact from an ion in a defined energy range. This latter observation is explained by extreme heating of the nanodiamonds by the penetrating ion. The obtained results are not limited to nanodiamonds, making them of interest for several fields, putting constraints on processes for the controlled modification of nanodiamonds, on the survival of dust in astrophysical environments, and on the behaviour of actinides released from nuclear waste into the environment.

In this article, we study theoretically the properties of hematene, a new antiferromagnetic 2D material exfoliated from hematite. Hematene is not a van-der Waals material, but it can still be obtained by liquid exfoliation of hematite crystals. Its properties might be quite different from those of the bulk and to establish such differences is one of the aims of this study. A detailed study of hematene by density functional theory has been carried out to look at the electronic properties of this iron oxide material. Results show that freestanding hematene is antiferromagnetic with a magnetic moment of 4 per atom and an insulator/semiconductor with a bandgap of almost 1.0 eV. The stability of hematene is confirmed by calculating its phonon spectrum. Hematene supported on gold and stanene was also investigated: while no significant changes are found for the contact with the former, the interaction with the latter turn Hematene into a 2D ferrimagnet.