Investigation of atomically thin films: state of the art

The review is devoted to the current state of research in one of the topical areas of the physics and chemistry of two-dimensional materials — the study of atomically thin films. The structure and properties of atomically thin monoelemental films, such as 2D iron, gold, and lithium, as well as silicene, germanene, borophene, etc., are described in detail. Two-dimensional films of metallic compounds like iron, copper, and zinc oxides and iron, cobalt, and copper carbides are considered. The main approaches to the stabilization of monoatomic films inside pores or between layers of other 2D materials are presented, and the exfoliation mechanism of ionic-covalent films with a polar surface into weakly bounded monolayers is described.