A variety of inorganic and organic nanosheets with characteristic structures and properties can be synthesized through exfoliation of layered materials. However, in general, immense time and efforts are required for exploration of exfoliation conditions and characterization of nanosheets. In addition, it is challenging to improve the yield of nanosheets obtained through exfoliation. Here we propose a materials-informatics-assisted high-yield synthesis of nanosheets, which does not require experience and intuition. Layered composites containing inorganic layers and interlayer organic guests are delaminated into nanosheets in a variety of dispersion media. First, an experimental screening is performed to find efficient exfoliation conditions and obtaina training dataset for the informatics approach. Sparse modeling is then used facilitating the extraction of important factors predicting the yield of nanosheets. High-yield (up to approximately 50 %) syntheses of nanosheetsare demonstrated in unknown systems in a minimum number of experiments. The yield is higher than those typically reported for layered materials. We expect that the effective combination has potentials for not only discovery of compounds but also structure control of materials.

Herein, few-layered titanate nanosheets with a large lateral size and surface functionalization were synthesized via the exfoliation of precursor layered composites in an organic medium. The combination of layered compounds, intercalated guests, and dispersion media has the potential for the synthesis of nanosheets with controlled lateral sizes, thicknesses, and surface chemistry through exfoliation.

Methylmercaptan (MM) is a marker of periodontal disease; however, the required sensitivity for MM is parts per billion, which has been challenging to realize with a simple sensor. Here, we report the capability to detect MM at concentrations as low as 20 ppb using layered manganese oxide nanosheets with a quartz crystal microbalance sensor. The sensing capabilities of the manganese oxide nanosheets are promoted by adsorbed water present on and between the nanosheets. The strong adsorption of MM to the sensor, which is necessary for the high sensitivity, leads to significant hysteresis in the response on cycling due to irreversible adsorption. However, the sensor can be readily reset by heating to 80 °C, which leads to highly reproducible response to MM vapor at low concentrations. A key aspect of this sensor design is the high selectivity toward MM in comparison to other compounds such as ethanol, ammonia, acetaldehyde, acetic acid, toluene, and pyridine. This layered nanosheets design for high-sensitivity sensors, demonstrated here for dilute MM, holds significant promise for addressing needs to identify sulfur compounds associated for environmental protection and medical diagnostics.

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