Capillary Origami with Atomically Thin Sheets*

The paper art of origami has inspired several works in which two-dimensional materials are cut and folded into desired geometries at the micron scale. At this scale, surface energies can easily dominate over bending energies, allowing sheets to be folded with droplets, a technique known as capillary origami. In this talk, we show capillary origami of monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) using droplets in water. By adding rigid panels to the MoS₂, we demonstrate controllable folding of polyhedra. Finally, we show that these shapes can be self-folded by using partially miscible droplets in water. These results provide a new approach for creating pre-patterned three-dimensional devices using two-dimensional materials.