Glaphene: A Hybridization of 2D Silica Glass and Graphene

Abstract

2D materials provide ideal platforms for breakthroughs in both fundamental science and practical, real-world applications. Despite the broad diversity of 2D materials, most integration efforts have focused on homo/hetero-structural stacking and Janus structures. In this paper, we introduce “glaphene”—a hybrid of two fundamentally different materials: 2D silica glass and graphene. We propose a metastable hybrid structure based on first-principles calculations, synthesize it via scalable liquid precursor-based vapor-phase growth, and chemically validate the interlayer structure and hybridization using extensive optical and electron spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and atomic-resolution electron microscopy. Using probe microscopy, we reveal that electronic cloud redistribution at the interface—beyond conventional van der Waals interactions—drives interlayer hybridization via a strong electronic proximity effect. By reconstructing the energy level diagram of glaphene through both theory and experiment, we show that the combination of semi-metallic graphene (E<inf>g</inf>≈0 eV) and insulating 2D silica glass (E<inf>g, exp</inf>≈8.2 eV, E<inf>g, th</inf>≈7 eV) results in a semiconducting “glaphene” (E<inf>g, exp</inf>≈3.6 eV, E<inf>g, th</inf>≈4 eV) formed through out-of-plane p<inf>z</inf> hybridization. This work paves the way for scalable, bottom-up methodologies to bring interlayer hybridization and its emergent properties to the 2D materials toolbox. © 2025 The Author(s). Advanced Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.