Preparation and Physicochemical Properties of Inorganic Two-dimensional Nanomaterial/Fullerene Composites

Abstract

Atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted significant scientific interest because of their outstanding physicochemical properties. In contrast to semimetal graphene composed of carbon atoms, mono-elemental 2D materials exfoliated from layered crystals are semiconductors with finite electronic bandgaps, rendering them promising components for next-generation electronic and optoelectronic devices. Among them, nanosheets of black phosphorus (BP) with a puckered honeycomb structure have been predominantly explored due to its layer-controlled direct bandgap, from 0.3 eV in the bulk to 2.0 eV in monolayers. A high carrier mobility of BP exceeding 10000 cm2 V−1 s−1 also enhances its utility. However, BP is extremely sensitive to its environment and can be easily degraded by exposure to light, moisture, and oxygen, which severely limits its applications.Considering its outstanding stability under ambient conditions, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), tungsten disulfide (WS2), and antimonene (Sb) are attractive alternatives that have a similar structure to that of BP. Theoretical and experimental studies have revealed their various remarkable physicochemical properties, such as tunable bandgap and high electrical conductivity.In this talk I will give an overview of our recent studies on two-dimensional nanomaterial/fullerene composites. In particular, the composites on SnO2 exhibited enhanced transient conductivity relative to single components, which demonstrates that the composites promoted the photoinduced charge separation.[1] J. Baek, T. Umeyama, W. Choi, Y. Tsutsui, H. Yamada, S. Seki, and H. Imahori, Chem. Eur. J., 24, 1561-1572 (2018).[2] T. Umeyama, T. Ohara, Y. Tsutsui, S. Nakano, S. Seki, and H. Imahori, Chem. Eur. J., 26, 6726-6735 (2020).