Realization of wafer-scale single-crystal films of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) such as WS 2 requires epitaxial growth and coalescence of oriented domains to form a continuous monolayer. The domains must be oriented in the same crystallographic direction on the substrate to inhibit the formation of inversion domain boundaries (IDBs), which are a common feature of layered chalcogenides. Here we demonstrate fully coalesced unidirectional WS 2 monolayers on 2 in. diameter c-plane sapphire by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition using a multistep growth process to achieve epitaxial WS 2 monolayers with low in-plane rotational twist (0.09°). Transmission electron microscopy analysis reveals that the WS 2 monolayers are largely free of IDBs but instead have translational boundaries that arise when WS 2 domains with slightly offset lattices merge together. By regulating the monolayer growth rate, the density of translational boundaries and bilayer coverage were significantly reduced. The unidirectional orientation of domains is attributed to the presence of steps on the sapphire surface coupled with growth conditions that promote surface diffusion, lateral domain growth, and coalescence while preserving the aligned domain structure. The transferred WS 2 monolayers show neutral and charged exciton emission at 80 K with negligible defect-related luminescence. Back-gated WS 2 field effect transistors exhibited an I ON / OFF of ∼10 7 and mobility of 16 cm 2 /(V s). The results demonstrate the potential of achieving wafer-scale TMD monolayers free of inversion domains with properties approaching those of exfoliated flakes.

Two-dimensional (2D) crystals have renewed opportunities in design and assembly of arti cial lattices without the constraints of epitaxy. However, the lack of thickness control in exfoliated van der Waals (vdW) layers prevents realization of repeat units with high delity. Recent availability of uniform, waferscale samples permits engineering of both electronic and optical dispersions in stacks of disparate 2D layers with multiple repeating units. We present optical dispersion engineering in a superlattice structure comprised of alternating layers of 2D excitonic chalcogenides and dielectric insulators. By carefully designing the unit cell parameters, we demonstrate > 90 % narrowband absorption in < 4 nm active layer excitonic absorber medium at room temperature, concurrently with enhanced photoluminescence in cm 2 samples. These superlattices show evidence of strong light-matter coupling and exciton-polariton formation with geometry-tunable coupling constants. Our results demonstrate proof of concept structures with engineered optical properties and pave the way for a broad class of scalable, designer optical metamaterials from atomically-thin layers.

A novel two-dimensional hybrid polymer photocatalyst black-MoO3/polyimide was synthesized by one-pot thermopolymerization of monomers, ammonium molybdate, and thiourea at mild temperatures. Thiourea and ammonium molybdate as fluxing agents promote the formation of black molybdenum oxide (BMO) on polyimide (PI) and enhance the crystallinity of PI. It is confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance, and Fourier transform infrared that the strong interaction between BMO and PI leads to the formation of a Mo-N coordination bond through the coordination of N atoms of heptazine units to the unsaturated Mo atoms of BMO and results in a large number of Mo5+ cations in BMO/PI. UV-vis and photoluminescence reveal that the visible light absorption of BMO/PI was increased and the separation efficiency of photogenerated electron/hole obviously was significantly enhanced, which facilitates the improvement of the photocatalytic activity of BMO/PI. This work provides a new approach to synthesizing efficient inorganic-organic hybrid semiconductor photocatalysts.

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Mass spectrometry (MS)-based phosphoproteomics remains challenging due to the low abundance of phosphoproteins and substoichiometric phosphorylation. This demands better methods to effectively enrich phosphoproteins/peptides prior to MS analysis. We have previously communicated the first use of mesoporous zirconium oxide (ZrO 2 ) nanomaterials for effective phosphopeptide enrichment. Here we present the full report including the synthesis, characterization, and application of mesoporous titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), ZrO 2 , and hafnium oxide (HfO 2 ) in phosphopeptide enrichment and MS analysis. Mesoporous ZrO 2 and HfO 2 are demonstrated to be superior to TiO 2 for phosphopeptide enrichment from a complex mixture with high specificity (>99%), which could almost be considered as "a purification", mainly because of the extremely large active surface area of mesoporous nanomaterials. A single enrichment and Fourier transform MS analysis of phosphopeptides digested from a complex mixture containing 7% of α-casein identified 21 out of 22 phosphorylation sites for α-casein. Moreover, the mesoporous ZrO 2 and HfO 2 can be reused after a simple solution regeneration procedure with comparable enrichment performance to that of fresh materials. Mesoporous ZrO 2 and HfO 2 nanomaterials hold great promise for applications in MSbased phosphoproteomics.

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Two-dimensional chalcogenide semiconductors have recently emerged as a host material for quantum emitters of single photons. While several reports on defect-and strain-induced singlephoton emission from 2D chalcogenides exist, a bottom-up, lithography-free approach to producing a high density of emitters remains elusive. Further, the physical properties of quantum emission in the case of strained 2D semiconductors are far from being understood. Here, we demonstrate a bottom-up, scalable, and lithography-free approach for creating large areas of localized emitters with high density (∼150 emitters/um 2 ) in a WSe 2 monolayer. We induce strain inside the WSe 2 monolayer with high spatial density by conformally placing the WSe 2 monolayer over a uniform array of Pt nanoparticles with a size of 10 nm. Cryogenic, time-resolved, and gate-tunable luminescence measurements combined with near-field luminescence spectroscopy suggest the formation of localized states in strained regions that emit single photons with a high spatial density. Our approach of using a metal nanoparticle array to generate a high density of strained quantum emitters will be applied to scalable, tunable, and versatile quantum light sources.

A monolayer MoS quantum dot confined polyimide (MQDs/PI) photocatalyst was synthesized by using a facile immersion-hydrothermal method. The investigations on the optical and electronic properties of MQDs/PI composites reveal that the strong quantum confinement effect of MQDs results in a blue-shift of the absorption band edge of PI, and the interfacial electronic interaction between MQDs and PI improves the charge transfer rate of MQDs/PI. The ultra-small size of 3.0 nm and perfect crystals of MQDs endow MQDs/PI composites with plenty of active sites and fast charge transfer, thus resulting in a 360% enhancement in photocatalytic hydrogen production compared with that of Pt/PI at the same loading amount of Pt. This discovery provides a new clue for the development of an efficient and sustainable non-noble metal photocatalyst.