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Physical Sciences - Article
Lin Zhou
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Corresponding Author
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Atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), together with their polymorphism, provide promising alternatives for next generation electronic devices and a platform to explore exotic quantum phenomena. However, a large-scale synthesis method that can reliably produce high-quality two-dimensional (2D) TMDs with controlled phase is still lacking. Instead, TMDs with high concentration of defects and defect-stabilized metastable crystalline phases are often obtained via conventional chemical vapor deposition. Here we developed a liquid-vapor (LV) technique to exploit liquid precursors to significantly suppress the equilibrium shift to the decomposition direction and successfully synthesized high-quality TMDs. We highlight the importance of exploiting the synergism of equilibrium and kinetics to facilitate the synthesis reaction (forward) and to impede decomposition (reverse). A high concentration of reactants in the liquid phase also maximizes the kinetic rate of defect repairing. We demonstrated the advantages of LV method by synthesizing diverse high-quality 2D metal tellurides with controllable polymorphs, which would be challenging, if not impossible, to realize by using conventional methods due to weak metal-tellurium bonds, thermal instability and the co-existence of mixed crystalline phases. In particular, we successfully synthesized high-quality monolayer 2H MoTe2, which is only possible when Te defect level is substantially suppressed. Our approach provides a new paradigm in high-quality and large-scale materials synthesis and can be readily extended to a variety of quantum materials, potentially accelerating both research and industrial initiatives.
Keywords
thin transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), polymorphism
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A new preprint design is coming!
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This is a preprint, a preliminary version of a manuscript that has not completed peer review at a journal. Research Square does not conduct peer review prior to posting preprints. The posting of a preprint on this server should not be interpreted as an endorsement of its validity or suitability for dissemination as established information or for guiding clinical practice.
Physical Sciences - Article
Lin Zhou
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Corresponding Author
Badges
Prescreen
This manuscript passed our Prescreen assessment
Complete author information
Appropriate declaration statements
Potential risks to human health
Prescreen
History
CURRENT STATUS: Posted
Version 1
Posted 16 Feb, 2021
Community comments: 1
Metrics
Comments: 0
PDF Downloads: ...
HTML Views: ...
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
Atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), together with their polymorphism, provide promising alternatives for next generation electronic devices and a platform to explore exotic quantum phenomena. However, a large-scale synthesis method that can reliably produce high-quality two-dimensional (2D) TMDs with controlled phase is still lacking. Instead, TMDs with high concentration of defects and defect-stabilized metastable crystalline phases are often obtained via conventional chemical vapor deposition. Here we developed a liquid-vapor (LV) technique to exploit liquid precursors to significantly suppress the equilibrium shift to the decomposition direction and successfully synthesized high-quality TMDs. We highlight the importance of exploiting the synergism of equilibrium and kinetics to facilitate the synthesis reaction (forward) and to impede decomposition (reverse). A high concentration of reactants in the liquid phase also maximizes the kinetic rate of defect repairing. We demonstrated the advantages of LV method by synthesizing diverse high-quality 2D metal tellurides with controllable polymorphs, which would be challenging, if not impossible, to realize by using conventional methods due to weak metal-tellurium bonds, thermal instability and the co-existence of mixed crystalline phases. In particular, we successfully synthesized high-quality monolayer 2H MoTe2, which is only possible when Te defect level is substantially suppressed. Our approach provides a new paradigm in high-quality and large-scale materials synthesis and can be readily extended to a variety of quantum materials, potentially accelerating both research and industrial initiatives.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
There is NO Competing Interest.
This is a list of supplementary files associated with this preprint. Click to download.
- Supplementaryinformation.docx
Supporting information
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