Solution-based Synthesis of Ultrathin Quasi-2D Amorphous Carbon for Nanoelectronics

The synthesis of ultrathin 2D amorphous dielectric film represents a major challenge due to the metastable nature of amorphous phases.We describe a scalable and solution-based strategy to prepare wafer-scale 2D amorphous carbon with thickness down to 1-2 atomic layers from coal-derived carbon quantum dots as precursors.The prepared atomically thin 2D amorphous carbon can be suspended over cavities as freestanding membranes with high modulus of 400100 GPa and demonstrate robust dielectric properties with dielectric strength above 20 MVcm -1 and leakage current density below 10 -4 Acm -2 through a scaled thickness of three atomic layers.When implemented as ultrathin gate dielectrics in 2D transistors or ion-transport media in memristors, they enable exceptional device performance and spatiotemporal uniformity, resulting from their amorphous form, intrinsic ultrathinness, and 2D atomic structures.