Violet phosphorus is the most stable phosphorus allotrope with a layered structure. The corresponding violet phosphorene, a more stable twodimensional semiconducting structure than black phosphorene, is a promising twodimensional material for electronic and optoelectronic devices. The synthesis of violet phosphorus is the key factor to its experimental research. However, no clear evidence has been reported for the synthesis of violet phosphorus since its first proposal in 1865. The violet phosphorus was even debated to be a metastable intermediate phase.Until recently, the violet phosphorus crystals have just been successfully produced and exfoliated to give violet phosphorene. High yield synthesis of highly crystalline and pure violet phosphorus is crucial for the further exploration of violet phosphorus and phosphorene. In this work, highly crystalline and pure violet phosphorus crystals have been produced with a yield as high as 80%. The vapor transport, nucleation, crystal growth conditions, and synthesis mechanism have been studied to obtain violet phosphorus instead of black phosphorus. The mixture of transport agents and amorphous red phosphorus was heated to 600 °C to form P−Sn−I vapor and transported to the cooler zone (580 °C). The phosphorus was separated out from the P−Sn−I composites after cooling down to 530 °C to form violet phosphorus nuclei. The nucleation time and further cooling time correspond to the amount and crystallinity of violet phosphorus crystals. The precipitation has been demonstrated to be SnI 2 crystals with a space group of C2/m (12) after the growth of violet phosphorus crystals. The synthesis of highly crystalline and pure violet phosphorus with high yield provides the application possibility of violet phosphorus and phosphorene in mechanic, electronic, optoelectronic, catalysts, and medical fields.

Violet phosphorus, a non-metallic elemental layered structure, has not been reported as photocatalyst due to the lack of violet phosphorus. An excellent photocatalytic H2 evolution rate of 675±109 μmolh-1g-1 with...

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Violet phosphorus quantum dots (VPQDs) are promising structures for bioimaging, solar cells, LEDs, diode lasers, and transistors due to the quantum confinement effects. Bandgap tuning is important for QDs to adjust their emissions for various applications. Nevertheless, no bandgap tuning of VPQDs has been investigated, since the violet phosphorus has just recently been successfully produced and confirmed. In this work, the bandgap of VPQDs has been demonstrated to be effectively tuned from 2.3 to 3.1 eV by a facile solvothermal path in different solvents to introduce different functional groups. The HOMO− LUMO gaps of VPQDs from different functionalizations have also been calculated by density functional theory to be 2. 73, 2.77, 2.74, 2.80, 2.51, and 2.56 eV, respectively, which are wellconsistent with the experimental results. Our results provide a simple pathway for bandgap tuning of VPQDs, which can be used for future optoelectronic applications.

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