Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Texas at Austin, and Hunan University (China) have recently devised a new method of preparing highly uniform, solution-processable, phase-pure semiconducting nanosheets. Their approach, outlined in a paper published in Nature, involves the electrochemical intercalation of quaternary ammonium molecules into 2-D crystals, followed by a mild sonication and exfoliation process.
Two-dimensional (2-D) materials consist of atomically thin crystal layers bound by the van der Waals force. Recently, the popularity of these materials has been on the rise, primarily due to their many potential applications in electronics, optoelectronics and catalysis.
