We make thin films of 2D materials produced with liquid phase exfoliation followed by Langmuir-Blodgett assembly. Such a production method is a good option for large area low cost transparent conductors and sensors on flexible substrates for wearable electronics. We are actively investigating the sensing performance of these materials that include graphene, PtSe2, MoS2 and hBN, on the route to practical devices. These films are excellent sensors of trace gases, humidity and strain.
A wearable, lightweight, flexible sensor that can detect all these parameters simultaneously was studied as part of project Gramulsen funded by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia.
Recently, we have made sensors from laser-induced graphene (LIG). We make heartbeat and respiration sensors from this material, and we explore new routes to fabricating LIG on biocompatible substrates through project Polygraph funded by the Science Fund.
- T. Vićentić et al, Laser-Induced Graphene for Heartbeat Monitoring with HeartPy Analysis, Sensors 22, 6326 (2022).
- S. Andrić et al, Ultrafast humidity sensor based on liquid phase exfoliated graphene, Nanotechnology 32, 025505 (2021).
- T. Tomašević-Ilić et al, Reducing sheet resistance of self-assembled transparent graphene films by defect patching and doping with UV/ozone treatment, Applied Surface Science 458, 446 (2018).
Graphene is an obvious material of choice for microphone membranes, because it is lightweight and stiff. We made the first microphone with a graphene membrane, which outperformed microphones with traditional nickel membranes. Under optimal conditions, graphene microphones could have usable bandwidth extending to the ultrasonic part of the spectrum.
On this topic, we collaborate with our industrial partner Dirigent Acoustics.
Although atomically thin, 2D materials can have a strong interaction with light, which is desirable for optical quantum computing and investigation of fundamental material properties. Together with colleagues at CALT in Croatia and the Institute of Physics in Belgrade, we are investigating the use of nonlinear optical microscopy to study material properties such as strain and crystal orientation.
