This talk will present our latest research adventures on 2D nanomaterials towards greater scientific understanding and advanced engineering applications. In particular the talk will highlight our work on flexible electronics, zero-power devices, monolayer memory (atomristors), non-volatile RF switches, and wearable tattoo sensors. Non-volatile memory devices based on 2D materials are an application of defects and is a rapidly advancing field with rich physics that can be attributed to sulfur vacancies or metal diffusion. Atomistic modeling and atomic resolution imaging are contemporary tools under use to elucidate the memory phenomena. Likewise, from a practical point, electronic tattoos based on graphene have ushered a new material platform that has highly desirable practical attributes including optical transparency, mechanical imperceptibility, and is the thinnest conductive electrode sensor that can be integrated on skin for physiological measurements. Much of these research achievements have been published in nature, IEEE and ACS journals, and widely covered by the news media including Time magazine, BBC, Nature news, IEEE spectrum, and several dozen media outlets.

[1] X. Wu, R. Ge, P.-A. Chen, H. Chou, Z. Zhang, Y. Zhang, S. Banerjee, M.-H. Chiang, J. C. Lee, and D. Akinwande, "Thinnest Nonvolatile Memory Based on Monolayer h-BN," Advanced Materials, vol. 0, p. 1806790, 2019.
[2] M. Kim, R. Ge, X. Wu, X. Lan, J. Tice, J. C. Lee, and D. Akinwande, "Zero-static power radio-frequency switches based on MoS2 atomristors," Nature Communications, vol. 9, p. 2524, 2018/06/28 2018.
[3] S. Kabiri Ameri, R. Ho, H. Jang, L. Tao, Y. Wang, L. Wang, D. M. Schnyer, D. Akinwande, and N. Lu, "Graphene Electronic Tattoo Sensors," ACS Nano, vol. 11, 2017.

Deji Akinwande is an Endowed Full Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He received the PhD degree from Stanford University in 2009. His research focuses on 2D materials and nanoelectronics/technology, pioneering device innovations from lab towards applications. Prof. Akinwande has been honored with the 2018 Fulbright Specialist Award, 2017 Bessel-Humboldt Research Award, the U.S Presidential PECASE award, the inaugural Gordon Moore Inventor Fellow award, the inaugural IEEE Nano Geim and Novoselov Graphene Prize, the IEEE “Early Career Award” in Nanotechnology, the NSF CAREER award, several DoD Young Investigator awards, and was a past recipient of fellowships from the Kilby/TI, Ford Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, 3M, and Stanford DARE Initiative. His research achievements have been featured by Nature news, Time magazine, BBC, Discover magazine, and many media outlets. He serves as an Editor for the IEEE Electron Device Letters and Nature NPJ 2D Materials and Applications. He Chairs the 2020 Gordon Research Conference on 2D materials, and the 2019 Device Research Conference (DRC), and was the 2018 chair of the Nano-device committee of IEEE IEDM Conference He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).