Davydov Splitting, Double-Resonance Raman Scattering, and Disorder-Induced Second-Order Processes in Chemical Vapor Deposited MoS2 Thin Films

Temperature induced modulation of resonant Raman scattering in bilayer 2H-MoS2

The temperature evolution of the resonant Raman scattering from high-quality bilayer 2H-MoS[Formula: see text] encapsulated in hexagonal BN flakes is presented. The observed resonant Raman scattering spectrum as initiated by the laser energy of 1.96 eV, close to the A excitonic resonance, shows rich and distinct vibrational features that are otherwise not observed in non-resonant scattering. The appearance of 1st and 2nd order phonon modes is unambiguously observed in a broad range of temperatures from 5 to 320 K. The spectrum includes the Raman-active modes, i.e. E[Formula: see text]([Formula: see text]) and A[Formula: see text]([Formula: see text]) along with their Davydov-split counterparts, i.e. E[Formula: see text]([Formula: see text]) and B[Formula: see text]([Formula: see text]). The temperature evolution of the Raman scattering spectrum brings forward key observations, as the integrated intensity profiles of different phonon modes show diverse trends. The Raman-active A[Formula: see text]([Formula: see text]) mode, which dominates the Raman scattering spectrum at T = 5 K quenches with increasing temperature. Surprisingly, at room temperature the B[Formula: see text]([Formula: see text]) mode, which is infrared-active in the bilayer, is substantially stronger than its nominally Raman-active A[Formula: see text]([Formula: see text]) counterpart.

Recoverable and reusable visible-light photocatalytic performance of CVD grown atomically thin MoS2 films

The decomposition of water pollutants including industrial dyes and chemicals via photocatalytic decontamination is one of the major investigated problems in recent years. Two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) layers have shown great promise as an efficient visible-light photocatalyst owing to its numerous active sites and large surface area. In this study, atomically thin MoS₂ films of different thicknesses from monolayer to five-layer and ten layers were fabricated on sapphire substrates using chemical vapor deposition (CVD). We demonstrate that these MoS₂ thin films can be used as a photocatalyst to degrade Methylene Blue (MB) dye and can be recovered completely with utmost structural and chemical stability. Under visible-light irradiation, the MB absorption peak completely disappears with ∼95.6% of degradation after 120 min. We also demonstrate the reusability of the MoS₂ thin films without significantly losing the photocatalytic activity even after 5-cycles of degradation studies. The chemical and structural stability of the MoS₂ films after 5-cycles of degradation studies were affirmed using various spectroscopic studies. Our findings suggest that the MB degradation efficiency increases from 19.01% to 98.46% with an increase in pH from 4 to 14. Our approach may facilitate a further design of other transition metal dichalcogenides-based recoverable photocatalysts for industrial applications.