  As nanoelectronic devices based on two-dimensional (2D) materials are moving
towards maturity, optimization of the properties of the active 2D material must
be accompanied by equal attention to optimizing the properties of and the
interfaces to the other materials around it, such as electrodes, gate
dielectrics, and the substrate. While these are usually either 2D or 3D
materials, recently K. Liu et al. [Nat. Electron. 4, 906 (2021)] reported on
the use of zero-dimensional (0D) material, consisting of vdW-bonded Sb$_2$O$_3$
clusters, as a highly promising insulating substrate and gate dielectric. Here,
we report on computational screening study to find promising 0D materials for
use in nanoelectronics applications, in conjunction with 2D materials in
particular. By combining a database and literature searches, we found 16
materials belonging to 6 structural prototypes with high melting points and
high band gaps, and a range of static dielectric constants. We carried out
additional first-principles calculations to evaluate selected technologically
relevant material properties, and confirmed that all these materials are van
der Waals-bonded, thus allowing for facile separation of 0D clusters from the
3D host and also weakly perturbing the electronic properties of the 2D material
after deposition.
