The van der Waals (vdW) force is a ubiquitous short-range interaction between
atoms and molecules that underlies many fundamental phenomena. Early pairwise
additive theories pioneered by Keesom, Debye, and London suggested the force to
be monotonically attractive for separations larger than the vdW contact
distance. However, seminal work by Lifshitz et al. predicted that quantum
fluctuations can change the sign of vdW interactions from attractive to
repulsive. Although recent experiments carried out in fluid environment have
demonstrated the long-range counterpart the Casimir repulsion, it remains
controversial whether the vdW repulsion exists, or is sufficiently strong to
alter solid-state properties. Here we show that the atomic thickness and
birefringent nature of two-dimensional (2D) materials, arising from their
anisotropic dielectric responses, make them a versatile medium to tailor the
many-body Lifshitz-vdW interactions at solid-state interfaces. Based on our
theoretical prediction, we experimentally examine two heterointerface systems
in which the vdW repulsion becomes comparable to the two-body attraction. We
demonstrate that the in-plane movement of gold atoms on a sheet of freestanding
graphene becomes nearly frictionless at room temperature. Repulsion between
molecular solid and gold across graphene results in a new polymorph with
enlarged out-of-plane lattice spacings. The possibility of creating repulsive
energy barriers in nanoscale proximity to an uncharged solid surface offers
technological opportunities such as single-molecule actuation and atomic
assembly