2D materials, such as graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), exhibit ultra‐low bending stiffness due to their monoplanar nanostructural configuration, which limits the mechanical robustness for a range of engineering applications. We address this lacuna by introducing programmed curvature in the geometry of such 2D materials without any additional mass, wherein nano‐architected meta‐atoms are topologically placed to form the target curvature. Through rigorous molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrate that inducing pre‐curvature in monoplanar nanostructures like graphene and hBN enhances their bending rigidity significantly, surpassing even multi‐layer planar structures. The numerical simulations further reveal an unprecedented capability of tailoring the fundamental force–displacement constitutive curve along with biased and asymmetric non‐linearity programming under inverted loading directions, exploiting the sequential appearance of local instabilities as a function of the introduced curvature. The novel approach of enhancing and tailoring mechanical characteristics of 2D materials based on curvature‐dependent control of bending rigidity advances the foundational understanding concerning the mechanics of nano‐architected 2D materials, paving the way for their applications as transverse load‐bearing components and dynamic control in sensors, actuators, flexible electronics, and other nanoelectromechanical systems.
Saumya et al. (Sun,) studied this question.