Synthesis of Ultrathin Composition Graded Doped Lateral WSe2/WS2 Heterostructures.

Lateral transition-metal dichalcogenide and their heterostructures have attracted substantial attention, but there lacks a simple approach to produce large-scaled optoelectronic devices with graded composition. In particular, the incorporation of substitution and doping into heterostructure formation is rarely reported. Here, we demonstrate growth of a composition graded doped lateral WSe2/WS2 heterostructure by ambient pressure chemical vapor deposition in a single heat cycle. Through Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy, we demonstrate that the monolayer heterostructure exhibits a clear interface between two domains and a graded composition distribution in each domain. The coexistence of two distinct doping modes, i.e., interstitial and substitutional doping, was verified experimentally. A distinct three-stage growth mechanism consisting of nucleation, epitaxial growth, and substitution was proposed. Electrical transport measurements reveal that this lateral heterostructure has representative characteristics of a photodiodes. The optoelectronic device based on the lateral WSe2/WS2 heterostructure shows improved photodetection performance in terms of a reasonable responsivity and a large photoactive area.

Local oxidation and reduction of graphene.

Micrometer sized oxidation patterns were created in chemical vapor deposition grown graphene through scanning probe lithography (SPL) and then subsequently reduced by irradiation using a focused x-ray beam. Throughout the process, the films were characterized by lateral force microscopy, micro-Raman and micro-x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Firstly, the density of grain boundaries was found to be crucial in determining the maximum possible oxygen coverage with SPL. Secondly, the dominant factor in SPL oxidation was found to be the bias voltage. At low voltages, only structural defects are formed on grain boundaries. Above a distinct threshold voltage, oxygen coverage increased rapidly, with the duration of applied voltage affecting the final oxygen coverage. Finally, we found that, independent of initial conditions, types of defects or the amount of SPL oxidation, the same set of coupled rate equations describes the reduction dynamics with the limiting reduction step being C-C â†’ C=C.

Towards the continuous production of high crystallinity graphene via electrochemical exfoliation with molecular in situ encapsulation.

Large-scale production of uniform and high-quality graphene is required for practical applications of graphene. The electrochemical exfoliation method is considered as a promising approach for the practical production of graphene. However, the relatively low production rate of graphene currently hinders its usage. Here, we demonstrate, for the first time, a rapid and high-yield approach to exfoliate graphite into graphene sheets via an electrochemical method with small molecular additives; where in this approach, the use of melamine additives is able to efficiently exfoliate graphite into high-quality graphene sheets. The exfoliation yield can be increased up to 25 wt% with melamine additives compared to electrochemical exfoliation without such additives in the electrolyte. The proposed mechanism for this improvement in the yield is the melamine-induced hydrophilic force from the basal plane; this force facilitates exfoliation and provides in situ protection of the graphene flake surface against further oxidation, leading to high-yield production of graphene of larger crystallite size. The residual melamine can be easily washed away by water after collection of the graphene. The exfoliation with molecular additives exhibits higher uniformity (over 80% is graphene of less than 3 layers), lower oxidation density (C/O ratio of 26.17), and low defect level (D/G < 0.45), which are characteristics superior to those of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) or of a previously reported approach of electrochemical exfoliated graphene (EC-graphene). The continuous films obtained by the purified graphene suspension exhibit a sheet resistance of 13.5 kΩ â–¡(-1) at ∼95% transmittance. A graphene-based nanocomposite with polyvinyl butyral (PVB) exhibits an electrical conductivity of 3.3 × 10(-3) S m(-1) for the graphene loading fraction of 0.46 vol%. Moreover, the melamine functionalized graphene sheets are readily dispersed in the aqueous solution during the exfoliation process, allowing for the production of graphene in a continuous process. The continuous process for producing graphene was demonstrated, with a yield rate of 1.5 g h(-1). The proposed method can produce high-crystallinity graphene in a fast and high-yield manner, which paves the path towards mass production of high-quality graphene for a variety of applications.