Army scientists are creating new 2-D materials that will rival Geim and Novoselov's discovery of graphene, which was first isolated in 2003, the result of their astonishing findings was published in 2004 marking a new chapter in the characterization of new 2 and 3D materials. Since their discovery there has been a flurry of activity to isolate derivatives of graphene and other smaller, thinner, and tougher materials.
Not surprisingly the armed forces have also been active in this field of research in a bid to find new properties in novel layered materials that can exist in a similar state as graphene or a few atoms in thickness.
For example university scientists and army scientists are currently working on characterizing the properties and morphology of tungstenite (WS2) which is a multi layered material made up of layers of sulphur and tungsten atoms, amongst its many properties tungstenite has light emitting properties which could be very useful in military applications such as optical sensing devices, light emitting diodes, and even lasers.
The beauty of being able to so routinely characterize such small materials only one or several atoms in thickness allows a lot of possible combinations of layers and atoms which will in itself create many possibilities of new novel materials with interesting properties.
These exciting developments might help armies equip their soldiers with novel and smart materials that are totally fit for purpose; being lighter and smaller is already a massive advantage for current devices and materials.