Introducing Normalized Centrifugation for a More Accurate Thermodynamic Analysis of Molybdenum Disulfide Dispersions: A Study on Mixed Solvents of Alcohols and Amines with Water

One-Step Exfoliation Method for Plasmonic Activation of Large-Area 2D Crystals

Advanced exfoliation techniques are crucial for exploring the intrinsic properties and applications of 2D materials. Though the recently discovered Au-enhanced exfoliation technique provides an effective strategy for the preparation of large-scale 2D crystals, the high cost of gold hinders this method from being widely adopted in industrial applications. In addition, direct Au contact could significantly quench photoluminescence (PL) emission in 2D semiconductors. It is therefore crucial to find alternative metals that can replace gold to achieve efficient exfoliation of 2D materials. Here, the authors present a one-step Ag-assisted method that can efficiently exfoliate many large-area 2D monolayers, where the yield ratio is comparable to Au-enhanced exfoliation method. Differing from Au film, however, the surface roughness of as-prepared Ag films on SiO₂ /Si substrate is much higher, which facilitates the generation of surface plasmons resulting from the nanostructures formed on the rough Ag surface. More interestingly, the strong coupling between 2D semiconductor crystals (e.g., MoS₂ , MoSe₂ ) and Ag film leads to a unique PL enhancement that has not been observed in other mechanical exfoliation techniques, which can be mainly attributed to enhanced light-matter interaction as a result of extended propagation of surface plasmonic polariton (SPP). This work provides a lower-cost and universal Ag-assisted exfoliation method, while at the same time offering enhanced SPP-matter interactions.

Liquid-Exfoliated 2D Materials for Optoelectronic Applications

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted tremendous research attention in recent days due to their extraordinary and unique properties upon exfoliation from the bulk form, which are useful for many applications such as electronics, optoelectronics, catalysis, etc. Liquid exfoliation method of 2D materials offers a facile and low-cost route to produce large quantities of mono- and few-layer 2D nanosheets in a commercially viable way. Optoelectronic devices such as photodetectors fabricated from percolating networks of liquid-exfoliated 2D materials offer advantages compared to conventional devices, including low cost, less complicated process, and higher flexibility, making them more suitable for the next generation wearable devices. This review summarizes the recent progress on metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetectors fabricated from percolating network of 2D nanosheets obtained from liquid exfoliation methods. In addition, hybrids and mixtures with other photosensitive materials, such as quantum dots, nanowires, nanorods, etc. are also discussed. First, the various methods of liquid exfoliation of 2D materials, size selection methods, and photodetection mechanisms that are responsible for light detection in networks of 2D nanosheets are briefly reviewed. At the end, some potential strategies to further improve the performance the devices are proposed.

Phase Transition-Induced Temperature-Dependent Phonon Shifts in Molybdenum Disulfide Monolayers Interfaced with a Vanadium Dioxide Film

We report the optical phonon shifts induced by phase transition effects of vanadium dioxide (VO₂) in monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) when interfacing with a VO₂ film showing a metal-insulator transition coupled with structural phase transition (SPT). To this end, the monolayer MoS₂ directly synthesized on a SiO₂/Si substrate by chemical vapor deposition was first transferred onto a VO₂/c-Al₂O₃ substrate in which the VO₂ film was prepared by a sputtering method. We compared the MoS₂ interfaced with the VO₂ film with the as-synthesized MoS₂ by using Raman spectroscopy. The temperature-dependent Raman scattering characteristics exhibited the distinct phonon behaviors of the E_2g¹ and A_1g modes in the monolayer MoS₂. Specifically, for the as-synthesized MoS₂, there were no Raman shifts for each mode, but the enhancement in the Raman intensities of E_2g¹ and A_1g modes was clearly observed with increasing temperature, which could be interpreted by the significant contribution of the interface optical interference effect. In contrast, the red-shifts of both the E_2g¹ and A_1g modes for the MoS₂ transferred onto VO₂ were clearly observed across the phase transition of VO₂, which could be explained in terms of the in-plane tensile strain effect induced by the SPT and the enhancement of electron-phonon interactions due to an increased electron density at the MoS₂/VO₂ interface through the electronic phase transition. This study provides further insights into the influence of interfacial hybridization for the heterogeneous integration of 2D transition-metal dichalcogenides and strongly correlated materials.

Thiolated poly(aspartic acid)-functionalized two-dimensional MoS2, chitosan and bismuth film as a sensor platform for cadmium ion detection

In this work, a sensitive electrochemical platform for determination of cadmium ions (Cd2+) is obtained using thiolated poly(aspartic acid) (TPA)-functionalized MoS2 as a sensor platform by differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DPASV). The performance of the TPA-MoS2-modified sensor is systemically studied. It demonstrates that the TPA-MoS2 nanocomposite modified sensor exhibits superior analytical performance for Cd2+ over a linear range from 0.5 μg L-1 to 50 μg L-1, with a detection limit of 0.17 μg L-1. Chitosan is able to form a continuous coating film on the surface of the GC electrode. The good sensing performance of the TPA-MoS2-modified sensor may be attributed to the following factors: the large surface area of MoS2 (603 m2 g-1), and the abundant thiol groups of TPA. Thus, the TPA-MoS2-modified sensor proves to be a reliable and environmentally friendly tool for the effective monitoring of Cd2+ existing in aquacultural environments.

Ultrafast Exfoliation of 2D Materials by Solvent Activation and One-Step Fabrication of All-2D-Material Photodetectors by Electrohydrodynamic Printing

Large-scale liquid exfoliation of two-dimensional materials such as molybdenum disulfide, tungsten disulfide, and graphene for the synthesis of printable inks is still inefficient due to many hours of exfoliation time needed to achieve a highly concentrated dispersion that is useful for printing. Here, we report that soaking the bulk 2D material powders in a variety of solvents (water, ethanol, isopropanol, acetone, methanol, dimethylformamide, N-methyl pyrrolidone, and hexane) briefly as short as 5 min "activates" them to be much more easily exfoliated afterward. The unsoaked powder yielded a negligible concentration of dispersed nanosheets (less than 0.01 mg/mL) even after long hours of sonication, while the powders soaked in water resulted in dispersed nanosheets of 1.21 mg/mL for MoS₂ and 1.28 mg/mL for WS₂ after 6 and 4 h of sonication, respectively, a more than 100 time increase. For graphene, soaking in methanol for 5 min prior to sonication for 6 h yielded an increase in the dispersed nanosheet concentration to 0.13 mg/mL, a more than 10 time increase in concentration. The enhanced exfoliation is originated not from the intercalated solvent molecules but from the slightly increased d-spacing of the bulk powders during soaking due to the different dielectric environments in the solvents, which assists in the exfoliation afterward. We further fabricated MoS₂ and WS₂ photodetectors with graphene as electrodes by one-step electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing using highly concentrated inks (>2 mg/mL) obtained by ultrafast liquid exfoliation, which have light sensitivity down to 0.05 sun. We believe that this ultrafast exfoliation technique combined with the one-step device printing technique enables a big step toward the mass production of functional devices fabricated from solution-processed 2D material inks.