Langmuir–Blodgett fabrication of large-area black phosphorus-C₆₀ thin films and heterojunction photodetectors

Abstract

Black phosphorus (BP) has emerged as a promising two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor for applications in electronics, optoelectronics, and energy storage. As is the case for many 2D materials, the fabrication of...

Phosphorene–Fullerene Nanostructures: A First-Principles Study

“…The Phosphorene-C60 non-covalent interaction has also been confirmed by the disappearance of the C60 absorption band at 340 nm in phosphorene Langmuir-Blodgett films after a simple toluene wash 20 . In this regard, density functional theory (DFT) computations supported a simple physical interaction between C60 and phosphorene characterized by strong electron density rearrangements (charge transfer) and adsorption energies of 1 eV [22][23] .…”

“…Compared to our results, periodic vdW-KBM calculations and molecular dynamics simulations have reported non-covalent Phos−C60 complexes with Eads values of 0.7 and −1.0 eV, respectively 19,23 ; then, our results agree with previous reports. Additionally, UV-VIS-NIR absorbance, temperature scanning tunneling microscopy, and scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements indicate that C60 molecules physically adsorb on phosphorene, where desorption occurs with annealing 400 K [20][21] . As can be seen, Eads=0.9 eV for Phos−C60 complexes agrees with the experimental favorable non-covalent adsorption of fullerenes on phosphorene-based materials.…”

“…However, phosphorene oxidation does not imply that fullerene adsorption will be hindered, and new synthetic techniques are developed to improve the stability of phosphorene layered materials for several applications [47][48] . Despite the latter, recent reports highlight the physisorption of C60 during an assembly at the air-water interface contribute to protecting phosphorene thin films from oxidation and inhibiting the overlapping stacking or agglomeration of phosphorene nanosheets in solvents 20 .…”

“…In fullerene-based polymer solar cells, phosphorene has enabled a strong absorption between 300-800 nm and better energy alignment in the device layers, which is significantly beneficial to the charge transfer, exciton dissociation, and reduce charge recombination, consequently enhancing the power conversion efficiency 18 . In addition, C60 allowed absorption in the visible range for mm-scale heterojunction phosphorene-based photodetectors, where synergistic effects enable high photoresponse from the visible to near-infrared spectrum 20 . Accordingly, synergistic properties of Phos−Fullerene complexes could inspire experimental/theoretical studies on its uses for future generation solar energy harvesters or as active layers within photodetector devices.…”

“…Despite widespread works on hybrids of fullerenes with other 2D nanomaterials, studies on Phosphorene-Fullerene hybrids have infrequently been reported and mainly focused on C60 adsorption. Experimentalists and theoreticians have synthesized/proposed Phosphorene−C60 nanostructures with relevant properties for technological applications such as high specific capacity battery electrode materials 16 , solar energy conversion [17][18] , new molecular doped crystalline superlattices for semiconductor industry 19 , and heterojunction photodetectors 20 . In this way, properties of phosphorene and fullerenes are compensated synergistically; for example, it is found in photovoltaic research that fullerenes act as excellent electron acceptors in polymer solar cells, while phosphorene improves the energy alignment in the devices, which lead to improved power conversion efficiency by favoring the charge transfer and exciton dissociation 18 .…”