Synthesis of Ultrathin Metallic MTe2 (M = V, Nb, Ta) Single-Crystalline Nanoplates

Jia Li; Bei Zhao; Peng Chen; Ruixia Wu; Bo Li; Qinglin Xia; Guanghua Guo; Jun Luo; Ketao Zang; Zhengwei Zhang; Huifang Ma; Guangzhuang Sun; Xidong Duan; Xiangfeng Duan

doi:10.1002/adma.201801043

Synthesis of Ultrathin Metallic MTe₂ (M = V, Nb, Ta) Single-Crystalline Nanoplates

Adv Mater. 2018 Jul 31:e1801043. doi: 10.1002/adma.201801043. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Jia Li¹, Bei Zhao¹, Peng Chen¹, Ruixia Wu¹, Bo Li², Qinglin Xia³, Guanghua Guo³, Jun Luo⁴, Ketao Zang⁴, Zhengwei Zhang¹, Huifang Ma¹, Guangzhuang Sun¹, Xidong Duan¹, Xiangfeng Duan^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory for Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China.
² School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China.
³ School of Physics and Electronics, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China.
⁴ Center for Electron Microscopy, Institute for New Energy Materials and Low-Carbon Technologies, School of Materials, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300384, China.
⁵ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
⁶ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.

PMID: 30063088
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201801043

Abstract

Two-dimensional materials with intrinsic magnetism have recently drawn intense interest for both the fundamental studies and potential technological applications. However, the studies to date have been largely limited to mechanically exfoliated materials. Herein, an atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition route to ultrathin group VB metal telluride MTe₂ (M = V, Nb, Ta) nanoplates with thickness as thin as 3 nm is reported. It is shown that the resulting nanoplates can be systematically evolved from mostly thicker hexagonal domains to thinner triangular domains with an increasing flow rate of the carrier gas. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy studies reveal MTe₂ (M = V, Nb, Ta) nanoplates are high-quality single crystals. High-resolution scanning transmission electron microscope imaging reveals the VTe₂ and NbTe₂ nanoplates adopt the hexagonal 1T phase and the TaTe₂ nanoplates show a monoclinic distorted 1T phase. Electronic transport studies show that MTe₂ single crystals exhibit metallic behavior. Magnetic measurements show that VTe₂ and NbTe₂ exhibit ferromagnetism and TaTe₂ shows paramagnetic behavior. The preparation of ultrathin few-layered MTe₂ nanoplates will open up exciting opportunities for the burgeoning field of spintronics, sensors, and magneto-optoelectronics.

Keywords: 2D materials; chemical vapor deposition; ferromagnetism; nanoplates; transition metal dichalcogenides.