Van der Waals pressure and its effect on trapped interlayer molecules.

Van der Waals assembly of two-dimensional crystals continue attract intense interest due to the prospect of designing novel materials with on-demand properties. One of the unique features of this technology is the possibility of trapping molecules between two-dimensional crystals. The trapped molecules are predicted to experience pressures as high as 1 GPa. Here we report measurements of this interfacial pressure by capturing pressure-sensitive molecules and studying their structural and conformational changes. Pressures of 1.2±0.3 GPa are found using Raman spectrometry for molecular layers of 1-nm in thickness. We further show that this pressure can induce chemical reactions, and several trapped salts are found to react with water at room temperature, leading to two-dimensional crystals of the corresponding oxides. This pressure and its effect should be taken into account in studies of van der Waals heterostructures and can also be exploited to modify materials confined at the atomic interfaces.

Selective separation behavior of graphene flakes in interaction with halide anions in the presence of an external electric field.

The adsorption of halide anions in the absence, and presence, of a perpendicularly external electric field on the C54H18 graphene surface has been investigated using M06-2X/6-31G(d,p) density functional theory (DFT). The structural characteristics, charge transfer, electric surface potential (ESP) maps, equilibrium distances between ions and the graphene surface and dipole moments of the ion-graphene complexes were investigated. The optimized structures show that halide anions (F(-) and Br(-)) adsorb on the graphene surface in contrast to the chloride anion that was stabilized on the edge area of the graphene flake. To clarify this unexpected behavior, diffusion of the chloride anion on the graphene surface was analyzed. The observations suggest that the moving of the chloride halide anion between barrier energies on the graphene flake has been facilitated as a result of the applied external electric field. In addition, an effective anion-π interaction between the fluoride anion and the graphene surface in the presence of an electric field holds out the capability of these anion-graphene complexes to design anion-selective nanoscale materials.