Synthesis of 2D Germanane (GeH): a New, Fast, and Facile Approach

Theodosis Giousis; Georgia Potsi; Antonios Kouloumpis; Konstantinos Spyrou; Yiannis Georgantas; Nikolaos Chalmpes; Konstantinos Dimos; Myrsini-Kiriaki Antoniou; Georgios Papavassiliou; Athanasios B Bourlinos; Hae Jin Kim; Vijay Kumar Shankarayya Wadi; Saeed Alhassan; Majid Ahmadi; Bart J Kooi; Graeme Blake; Daniel M Balazs; Maria A Loi; Dimitrios Gournis; Petra Rudolf

doi:10.1002/anie.202010404

Synthesis of 2D Germanane (GeH): a New, Fast, and Facile Approach

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2021 Jan 4;60(1):360-365. doi: 10.1002/anie.202010404. Epub 2020 Nov 3.

Authors

Theodosis Giousis^{1

2}, Georgia Potsi^{1

2

3}, Antonios Kouloumpis^{1

2

3}, Konstantinos Spyrou¹, Yiannis Georgantas^{1

2

4}, Nikolaos Chalmpes¹, Konstantinos Dimos^{1

5}, Myrsini-Kiriaki Antoniou¹, Georgios Papavassiliou⁶, Athanasios B Bourlinos⁷, Hae Jin Kim⁸, Vijay Kumar Shankarayya Wadi⁹, Saeed Alhassan⁹, Majid Ahmadi², Bart J Kooi², Graeme Blake², Daniel M Balazs², Maria A Loi², Dimitrios Gournis¹, Petra Rudolf²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Ioannina, 45110, Ioannina, Greece.
² Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747, AG, Groningen, The Netherlands.
³ current address: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA.
⁴ current address: Department of Materials, National Graphene Institute, Henry Royce Institute, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
⁵ current address: Department of Materials Science, University of Patras, GR-26504, Patras, Greece.
⁶ Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, NCSR "DEMOKRITOS", 15310 Ag. Paraskevi-Attikis, Athens, Greece.
⁷ Department of Physics, University of Ioannina, 45110, Ioannina, Greece.
⁸ Nano-Bio Electron Microscopy Research Group, Korea Basic Science Institute, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
⁹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, The Petroleum Institute, PO Box 2533, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Abstract

Germanane (GeH), a germanium analogue of graphane, has recently attracted considerable interest because its remarkable combination of properties makes it an extremely suitable candidate to be used as 2D material for field effect devices, photovoltaics, and photocatalysis. Up to now, the synthesis of GeH has been conducted by substituting Ca by H in a β-CaGe₂ layered Zintl phase through topochemical deintercalation in aqueous HCl. This reaction is generally slow and takes place over 6 to 14 days. The new and facile protocol presented here allows to synthesize GeH at room temperature in a significantly shorter time (a few minutes), which renders this method highly attractive for technological applications. The GeH produced with this method is highly pure and has a band gap (E_g ) close to 1.4 eV, a lower value than that reported for germanane synthesized using HCl, which is promising for incorporation of GeH in solar cells.

Keywords: germanane; semiconductors; synthesis; topotatic de-intercalation; two-dimensional materials.

Abstract

Grants and funding