Science: Weaker interfaces enable conformal films

The image designed by SPHERE was selected as the concept map of the home page of www.science.org. 

As shown in the picture below, the skin surface is tightly covered with a film structure composed of two-dimensional nano flakes (with dark blue metallic luster) at micro-scale. These flakes attract each other through bond-free van der Waals interfaces to enable mechanical stretchability and malleability as well as permeability and breathability. 

Furthermore, a dynamic illustration of the VDWTFs and CVDTFs under mechanical stretching gives a microscopic interpretation.

by SPHERE