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Researchers demonstrated that freestanding films of two oxide perovskites, SrTiO3 and BiFeO3, can retain crystalline order almost down to a single unit cell. The 2019 result applies to the films they studied—not to every perovskite or every ultrathin material—and the samples were films, not atom-thick devices.
What the researchers made
Dianxiang Ji, Songhua Cai and colleagues reported freestanding crystalline films of strontium titanate (SrTiO3) and bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3). In their 2019 Nature paper, the authors said their results showed “the absence of a critical thickness for stabilizing the crystalline order in the freestanding ultrathin oxide films.” That is a finding about the materials and conditions in this study, rather than a universal rule that crystal order has no limit.
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The films were grown by reactive molecular beam epitaxy and released from their growth support for transfer to other substrates, including crystalline silicon wafers and holey carbon films. Chemistry World’s contemporaneous report on the work described samples roughly two to four unit cells thick, with some one-unit-cell-thick regions. It also described transfers of square-millimetre-scale sheets; those dimensions should not be taken to mean that every sample or transferred area was identical.
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These oxides cannot be produced as thin sheets simply by peeling apart bulk crystals in the way graphite can: the bonds between their layers are too strong. The researchers instead grew the perovskite films on a water-soluble sacrificial buffer layer made of Sr3Al2O6. Removing that buffer in water released the oxide film, which could then be transferred onto another support.
This approach separates two tasks: epitaxial growth establishes the crystalline film, while dissolution of the buffer frees it from the original growth substrate. The reported result is significant because the films remained crystalline after release even near the single-unit-cell limit.
What changed in the ultrathin materials
BiFeO3: unusual structure and polarization
As freestanding BiFeO3 approached the two-dimensional limit, the paper reported unexpected giant tetragonality and polarization. These are material properties observed in the study, not evidence of a finished device or a demonstrated application.
SrTiO3: flexibility in a very thin film
Chemistry World noted that ultrathin SrTiO3 sheets were flexible, unlike bulk strontium titanate, which behaves as a brittle ceramic. This observation concerns the thin material itself; it does not establish a flexible commercial product.
Does this mean 2D perovskite oxides could be the next graphene?
That remains a possibility, not a result of the experiments. The paper points to future exploration of two-dimensional correlated phases and interfacial phenomena. The scientists behind the work told Chemistry World, “We anticipate that 2D perovskite oxides could become as useful as graphene.” The wording is an expectation about future usefulness, not a claim that the films already match graphene in applications or performance.
The study’s contribution is more specific: it demonstrated a way to grow, release and transfer crystalline oxide perovskite films close to the monolayer limit, while observing striking properties in the ultrathin materials. It did not establish device performance, commercial uses, or universal behavior across oxide films.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Paper and publication details
The primary paper, “Freestanding crystalline oxide perovskites down to the monolayer limit,” by Dianxiang Ji and colleagues, appeared in Nature 570, pages 87–90. It was published online on 5 June 2019, with an issue date of 6 June 2019. Nature lists author affiliations at Nanjing University, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the University of California, Irvine. The authors state that data supporting the plots and findings are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.
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