Sonication-assisted liquid phase exfoliation of two-dimensional CrTe3 under inert conditions

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Kevin Synnatschke - , Heidelberg University , Trinity College Dublin (Author)
  • Narine Moses Badlyan - , Technical University of Berlin, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Author)
  • Angelika Wrzesińska - , TUD Dresden University of Technology, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)
  • Guillermo Lozano Onrubia - , Heidelberg University  (Author)
  • Anna Lena Hansen - , Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kiel University (Author)
  • Stefan Wolff - , Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Author)
  • Hans Tornatzky - , Technical University of Berlin, Leibniz Research Association Berlin e. V. (Author)
  • Wolfgang Bensch - , Kiel University (Author)
  • Yana Vaynzof - , Chair of Emerging Electronic Technologies (gB/IFW and cfaed), Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)
  • Janina Maultzsch - , Technical University of Berlin, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Author)
  • Claudia Backes - , University of Kassel (Author)

Abstract

Liquid phase exfoliation (LPE) has been used for the successful fabrication of nanosheets from a large number of van der Waals materials. While this allows to study fundamental changes of material properties’ associated with reduced dimensions, it also changes the chemistry of many materials due to a significant increase of the effective surface area, often accompanied with enhanced reactivity and accelerated oxidation. To prevent material decomposition, LPE and processing in inert atmosphere have been developed, which enables the preparation of pristine nanomaterials, and to systematically study compositional changes over time for different storage conditions. Here, we demonstrate the inert exfoliation of the oxidation-sensitive van der Waals crystal, CrTe3. The pristine nanomaterial was purified and size-selected by centrifugation, nanosheet dimensions in the fractions quantified by atomic force microscopy and studied by Raman, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and photo spectroscopic measurements. We find a dependence of the relative intensities of the CrTe3 Raman modes on the propagation direction of the incident light, which prevents a correlation of the Raman spectral profile to the nanosheet dimensions. XPS and EDX reveal that the contribution of surface oxides to the spectra is reduced after exfoliation compared to the bulk material. Further, the decomposition mechanism of the nanosheets was studied by time-dependent extinction measurements after water titration experiments to initially dry solvents, which suggest that water plays a significant role in the material decomposition.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number106528
JournalUltrasonics Sonochemistry
Volume98
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2023
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 37506508