General synthesis of 2D rare-earth oxide single crystals with tailorable facets

Linyang Li; Fangyun Lu; Wenqi Xiong; Yu Ding; Yangyi Lu; Yao Xiao; Xin Tong; Yao Wang; Shuangfeng Jia; Jianbo Wang; Rafael G Mendes; Mark H Rümmeli; Shengjun Yuan; Mengqi Zeng; Lei Fu

doi:10.1093/nsr/nwab153

General synthesis of 2D rare-earth oxide single crystals with tailorable facets

Natl Sci Rev. 2021 Aug 23;9(5):nwab153. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwab153. eCollection 2022 May.

Authors

Linyang Li¹, Fangyun Lu¹, Wenqi Xiong², Yu Ding¹, Yangyi Lu¹, Yao Xiao³, Xin Tong¹, Yao Wang¹, Shuangfeng Jia², Jianbo Wang², Rafael G Mendes⁴, Mark H Rümmeli⁴, Shengjun Yuan², Mengqi Zeng¹, Lei Fu¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
² Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-Structures of Ministry of Education and School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
³ The Institute for Advanced Studies, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
⁴ College of Physics, Optoelectronics and Energy, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China.

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) rare-earth oxides (REOs) are a large family of materials with various intriguing applications and precise facet control is essential for investigating new properties in the 2D limit. However, a bottleneck remains with regard to obtaining their 2D single crystals with specific facets because of the intrinsic non-layered structure and disparate thermodynamic stability of different facets. Herein, for the first time, we achieve the synthesis of a wide variety of high-quality 2D REO single crystals with tailorable facets via designing a hard-soft-acid-base couple for controlling the 2D nucleation of the predetermined facets and adjusting the growth mode and direction of crystals. Also, the facet-related magnetic properties of 2D REO single crystals were revealed. Our approach provides a foundation for further exploring other facet-dependent properties and various applications of 2D REO, as well as inspiration for the precise growth of other non-layered 2D materials.

Keywords: 2D materials; CVD; cerium; crystal engineering; rare earth.