Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a gas species that plays an important role in certain industrial, farming, and healthcare sectors. However, there are still significant challenges for NO2 sensing at low detection limits, especially in the presence of other interfering gases. The NO2 selectivity of current gas-sensing technologies is significantly traded-off with their sensitivity and reversibility as well as fabrication and operating costs. In this work, we present an important progress for selective and reversible NO2 sensing by demonstrating an economical sensing platform based on the charge transfer between physisorbed NO2 gas molecules and two-dimensional (2D) tin disulfide (SnS2) flakes at low operating temperatures. The device shows high sensitivity and superior selectivity to NO2 at operating temperatures of less than 160 °C, which are well below those of chemisorptive and ion conductive NO2 sensors with much poorer selectivity. At the same time, excellent reversibility of the sensor is demonstrated, which has rarely been observed in other 2D material counterparts. Such impressive features originate from the planar morphology of 2D SnS2 as well as unique physical affinity and favorable electronic band positions of this material that facilitate the NO2 physisorption and charge transfer at parts per billion levels. The 2D SnS2-based sensor provides a real solution for low-cost and selective NO2 gas sensing.

appreciable free carrier concentration. [5][6][7] The same strategy can potentially be implemented in selected 2D semiconductors. Another concern is the damping losses that should be kept low for applications such as optical communications, in which a long propagation of waves is necessary. [ 7 ] Reducing such damping losses requires that the product of the effective electron mass and the free charge mobility must be large in the 2D material. As a result, fi nding favorable materials that satisfy the aforementioned conditions are necessary for advancing the fi eld of 2D plasmonics.The creation of stable 2D semiconducting oxides of tungsten and molybdenum is possible, as we demonstrated previously. [ 8,9 ] In a recent topical feature article, Gregorieva and Geim have separated out these oxides as a unique group of 2D materials and predicted their signifi cant role in the future of planar structures. [ 10 ] The impact of these two metal oxides can be extended into the plasmonic realm, and, in fact, plasmon resonances in the one-dimensional (1D) morphologies of these two oxides have recently been demonstrated. Manthiram and Alivisatos reported plasmon resonances in 1D sub-stoichiometric semiconducting tungsten oxide, [ 6 ] while Huang et al. have shown the generation of plasmon resonances in 1D tubular reduced molybdenum oxide suspensions. [ 5 ] Advantageously both tungsten and molybdenum oxides can be ultra-doped and have also large dielectric constants, which both are important factors for obtaining plasmon resonances in the near IR and visible regions. [ 2 ] In 1D sub-stoichiometric tungsten and molybdenum oxides, the plasmon resonances are a function of two modest depolarization factors along the cross section of the 1D structure ( Figure 1 a -Supporting Information, Section S1 for the equations). However, the existence of one large depolarization factor reduces the wavelength of the plasmon resonances in 2D structures of similar stoichiometry.Accordingly, here, we explore tunable plasmonics in substoichiometric 2D molybdenum oxide nanofl akes in the visible range. The unique properties of 2D molybdenum oxide such as the possibility of high level ionic intercalation (hence ultradoping), large permittivity and the effect of the depolarization factor in 2D fl akes are used for demonstrating tunable plasmon resonance in this range. We investigate the effect of intercalating ions and changing the lateral dimensions of the fl akes on the plasmon resonance peaks of a reduced quasi-metallic form of molybdenum oxide.Molybdenum trioxide (MoO 3 ) is a stable n -type semiconductor under a wide range of conditions with a bandgap of ca. 3.2 eV, which is capable of adsorbing energy from a small portion of the visible light spectrum. [ 5,11 ] The most frequently 2D materials exhibit certain physical and chemical properties that are fundamentally different from their bulk counterparts. [ 1,2 ] The electronic and optical properties seen in the selected 2D materials may lead to signifi cantly altered plasmon dispersion relationsh...

We demonstrate that the energy bandgap of layered, high-dielectric α-MoO(3) can be reduced to values viable for the fabrication of 2D electronic devices. This is achieved through embedding Coulomb charges within the high dielectric media, advantageously limiting charge scattering. As a result, devices with α-MoO(3) of ∼11 nm thickness and carrier mobilities larger than 1100 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) are obtained.

Chemical reaction studies of N-methyl-N-propyl-pyrrolidinium-bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide-based ionic liquid with the lithium metal surface were performed using ab initio molecular dynamics (aMD) simulations and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The molecular dynamics simulations showed rapid and spontaneous decomposition of the ionic liquid anion, with subsequent formation of long-lived species such as lithium fluoride. The simulations also revealed the cation to retain its structure by generally moving away from the lithium surface. The XPS experiments showed evidence of decomposition of the anion, consistent with the aMD simulations and also of cation decomposition and it is envisaged that this is due to the longer time scale for the XPS experiment compared to the time scale of the aMD simulation. Overall experimental results confirm the majority of species suggested by the simulation. The rapid chemical decomposition of the ionic liquid was shown to form a solid electrolyte interphase composed of the breakdown products of the ionic liquid components in the absence of an applied voltage.

A variety of deposition methods for two-dimensional crystals have been demonstrated; however, their wafer-scale deposition remains a challenge. Here we introduce a technique for depositing and patterning of wafer-scale two-dimensional metal chalcogenide compounds by transforming the native interfacial metal oxide layer of low melting point metal precursors (group III and IV) in liquid form. In an oxygen-containing atmosphere, these metals establish an atomically thin oxide layer in a self-limiting reaction. The layer increases the wettability of the liquid metal placed on oxygen-terminated substrates, leaving the thin oxide layer behind. In the case of liquid gallium, the oxide skin attaches exclusively to a substrate and is then sulfurized via a relatively low temperature process. By controlling the surface chemistry of the substrate, we produce large area two-dimensional semiconducting GaS of unit cell thickness (∼1.5 nm). The presented deposition and patterning method offers great commercial potential for wafer-scale processes.

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We fit a new gold embedded atom method (EAM) potential using an improved force matching methodology which included fitting to high-temperature solid lattice constants and liquid densities. The new potential shows a good overall improvement in agreement to the experimental lattice constants, elastic constants, stacking fault energy, radial distribution function, and fcc/hcp/bcc lattice energy differences over previous potentials by Foiles, Baskes, and Daw (FBD) [Phys. Rev. B 33, 7983 (1986)] Johnson [Phys. Rev. B 37, 3924 (1988)], and the glue model potential by Ercolessi et al. [Philos. Mag. A 50, 213 (1988)]. Surface energy was improved slightly as compared to potentials by FBD and Johnson but as a result vacancy formation energy is slightly inferior as compared to the same potentials. The results obtained here for gold suggest for other metal species that further overall improvements in potentials may still be possible within the EAM framework with an improved fitting methodology. On the other hand, we also explore the limitations of the EAM framework by attempting a brute force fit to all properties exactly which was found to be unsuccessful. The main conflict in such a brute force fit was between the surface energy and the liquid lattice constant where both could not be fitted identically. By intentionally using a very large number of spline sections for the pair potential, electron-density function, and embedding energy function, we eliminated a lack of functional freedom as a possible cause of this conflict and hence can conclude that it must result from a fundamental limitation in the EAM framework.

Atomically thin semiconductors are one of the fastest growing categories in materials science due to their promise to enable high-performance electronic and optical devices. Furthermore, a host of intriguing phenomena have been reported to occur when a semiconductor is confined within two dimensions. However, the synthesis of large area atomically thin materials remains as a significant technological challenge. Here we report a method that allows harvesting monolayer of semiconducting stannous oxide nanosheets (SnO) from the interfacial oxide layer of liquid tin. The method takes advantage of van der Waals forces occurring between the interfacial oxide layer and a suitable substrate that is brought into contact with the molten metal. Due to the liquid state of the metallic precursor, the surface oxide sheet can be delaminated with ease and on a large scale. The SnO monolayer is determined to feature p-type semiconducting behavior with a bandgap of ∼4.2 eV. Field effect transistors based on monolayer SnO are demonstrated. The synthetic technique is facile, scalable and holds promise for creating atomically thin semiconductors at wafer scale.