The existence of things is directly related to their structural symmetry in a broad framework ranging from atoms to crystalline materials and from simple cells to complex organisms like humans. However, structural imbalance that occurs through natural or artificial means can provide completely different advantages. Molecules, crystals, and complex structures with structural imbalance constitute the family of Janus-type materials. This perspective provides a comprehensive discussion on the synthesis techniques of Janus-type materials, their use in fields from biology to materials science, and very recent studies on the family of 2D ultrathin graphene-like structures. We believe that, thanks to the advances in experimental techniques, the few-atom-sized off-balanced materials will be indispensable parts of the nanotechnology products that soon will be used in our daily lives.
By performing density functional theory-based calculations, possible stable ultra-thin crystal structures of SrCl2 are investigated. Phonon calculations reveal that, among possible crystal structures, three different phases; namely 1H, 1T, and...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.