Wet chemical thinning of molybdenum disulfide down to its monolayer

Journal Article · Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · APL Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4893962· OSTI ID:22303563

Amara, Kiran Kumar ^[1]; Chu, Leiqiang; Kumar, Rajeev ^[2]; Toh, Minglin ^[2]; Eda, Goki ^[1]

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1. Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, 3 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117543 (Singapore)
2. Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, 2 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117551 (Singapore)

We report on the preparation of mono- and bi-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS{sub 2}) from a bulk crystal by facile wet chemical etching. We show that concentrated nitric acid (HNO{sub 3}) effectively etches thin MoS{sub 2} crystals from their edges via formation of MoO{sub 3}. Interestingly, etching of thin crystals on a substrate leaves behind unreacted mono- and bilayer sheets. The flakes obtained by chemical etching exhibit electronic quality comparable to that of mechanically exfoliated counterparts. Our findings indicate that the self-limiting chemical etching is a promising top-down route to preparing atomically thin crystals from bulk layer compounds.

• OSTI ID: 22303563
• Journal Information: APL Materials, Vol. 2, Issue 9; Other Information: (c) 2014 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2166-532X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CRYSTALS
ETCHING
LAYERS
MOLYBDENUM OXIDES
MOLYBDENUM SULFIDES
NITRIC ACID
SUBSTRATES