Liquefaction of water on the surface of anisotropic two-dimensional atomic layered black phosphorus

Jinlai Zhao; Jiajie Zhu; Rui Cao; Huide Wang; Zhinan Guo; David K Sang; Jiaoning Tang; Dianyuan Fan; Jianqing Li; Han Zhang

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-11937-9

Liquefaction of water on the surface of anisotropic two-dimensional atomic layered black phosphorus

Nat Commun. 2019 Sep 6;10(1):4062. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-11937-9.

Authors

Jinlai Zhao^{1

2

3}, Jiajie Zhu³, Rui Cao^{1

2}, Huide Wang², Zhinan Guo⁴, David K Sang², Jiaoning Tang³, Dianyuan Fan², Jianqing Li¹, Han Zhang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Information Technology, Macau University of Science and Technology, Avenida Wai Long, Taipa, Macau, 999078, PR China.
² Shenzhen Engineering Laboratory of Phosphorene and Optoelectronics, International Collaborative Laboratory of 2D Materials for Optoelectronics Science and Technology, Engineering Technology Research Center for 2D Material Information Function Devices and Systems of Guangdong Province, Institute of Microscale Optoelectronics (IMO), Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, PR China.
³ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, Shenzhen, 518060, PR China.
⁴ Shenzhen Engineering Laboratory of Phosphorene and Optoelectronics, International Collaborative Laboratory of 2D Materials for Optoelectronics Science and Technology, Engineering Technology Research Center for 2D Material Information Function Devices and Systems of Guangdong Province, Institute of Microscale Optoelectronics (IMO), Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, PR China. guozhinan@szu.edu.cn.
⁵ Shenzhen Engineering Laboratory of Phosphorene and Optoelectronics, International Collaborative Laboratory of 2D Materials for Optoelectronics Science and Technology, Engineering Technology Research Center for 2D Material Information Function Devices and Systems of Guangdong Province, Institute of Microscale Optoelectronics (IMO), Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, PR China. hzhang@szu.edu.cn.

Abstract

The growth and wetting of water on two-dimensional(2D) materials are important to understand the development of 2D material based electronic, optoelectronic, and nanomechanical devices. Here, we visualize the liquefaction processes of water on the surface of graphene, MoS₂ and black phosphorus (BP) via optical microscopy. We show that the shape of the water droplets forming on the surface of BP, which is anisotropic, is elliptical. In contrast, droplets are rounded when they form on the surface of graphene or MoS₂, which do not possess orthometric anisotropy. Molecular simulations show that the anisotropic liquefaction process of water on the surface of BP is attributed to the different binding energies of H₂O molecules on BP along the armchair and zigzag directions. The results not only reveal the anisotropic nature of water liquefaction on the BP surface but also provide a way for fast and nondestructive determination of the crystalline orientation of BP.