Abstract
Phyllosilicates are essential materials for novel implementations in two-dimensional based optoelectronic technologies. These naturally occurring minerals exhibitproperties that can be tuned by atomic species proportions, phase coexistence and chemical inclusions. Among these structural modifications, interlamellar water plays a special role in determining those properties, providing physical stability but also ruling out some conditions that are mandatory for device development, such as spatial chemical homogeneity and dielectric figures of merit. In this sense, it is mandatory to examine whether interlamellar water is restricted to surfaces or can also affect the bulk of multi-layered structures. Here, we provide a concise scenario by cross-correlating results from infrared spectroscopy, Kelvin probe microscopy (both bulk-sensitive for insulating samples), and crystal truncation rod synchrotron measurements (sensitive to the topmost layers, with a few lattice parameter thickness). We show that a comparison of talc, phlogopite and clinochlore can be drawn by considering surface, sub-surface and bulk water content provided by our measurements, indicating the role of ionic layers and lateral water segregation to few-layer non-swelling phyllosilicate systems. Our results can directly impact chemical and structural phyllosilicate choices for device implementation, depending on the required functionality.
Published Version
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