Watching Dynamic Self-Assembly of Web Buckles in Strained MoS₂ Thin Films

Thin films with large compressive residual stress and low interface adhesion can buckle and delaminate from relatively rigid substrates, which is a common failure mode of film/substrate interfaces. Current studies mainly focused on the geometry of various buckling patterns and related physical origins based on a static point of view. However, fundamental understanding of dynamic propagation of buckles, particularly for the complicated web buckles, remains challenging. We adopt strained two-dimensional MoS₂ thin films to study the phenomenon of web buckling because their interface adhesion, namely van der Waals interaction, is naturally low. With a delicately site-controlled initiation, web buckles can be triggered and their dynamic propagation is in situ observed facilely. Finite element modeling shows that the formation of web buckles involves the propagation and multilevel branching of telephone-cord blisters. These buckled semiconducting films can be patterned by spatial confinement and potentially used in diffuse-reflective coatings, microfluidic channels, and hydrogen evolution reaction electrodes. Our work not only reveals the hidden mechanisms and kinematics of propagation of web buckles on rigid substrates but also sheds light on the development of semiconducting devices based on buckling engineering.