When it comes to electronics, bigger usually isn’t better. This is especially true for a new generation of wearable communication systems that promise to connect people, machines and other objects in a wireless “internet of things.” To make the devices small and comfortable enough to wear, scientists need to miniaturize their components. Now, researchers in ACS Nano have made the tiniest radio-frequency antennas reported yet, with thicknesses of about 1/100 of a human hair. Antennas that receive and transmit radio waves are usually made of metal conductors, such as aluminum, copper and silver. Although these materials have high electrical conductivity, they do not perform well in ultrathin, lightweight antennas. As a result, most metal-based antennas are thicker than 30 micrometers in diameter, which limits their application in miniaturized electronic devices. To make even tinier antennas, Keun-Young Shin, Ho Seok Park and colleagues wanted to try using extremely thin sheets of a 2D material that consisted of a layer of metallic niobium atoms sandwiched between two layers of selenium atoms (NbSe2).

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