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The control of crystal growth is important but challenging for multi-disciplinary research. Violet phosphorus, the most stable phosphorus allotrope, has recently been produced as a unique semiconducting layered structure. The crystal orientation and morphology bring extra performance due to its unique structure and anisotropy. Herein, the layered violet phosphorus has been controlled to grow along the c-axis to give tunable length up to centimeters with the assistance of tin, while the reported flat bulk ones with thickness are limited to micrometers. The as-produced needle-shaped violet phosphorus has also been demonstrated to significantly enhance the photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange pollutants due to its special crystallographic orientation. About 98.6% of methyl orange pollutants with a concentration of 50 ppm were degraded within 80 min under visible light conditions by needle-shaped violet phosphorus, which is much more effective than that of amorphous red phosphorus with only 14.1% degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical anisotropy of graphene/graphane superlattices with zigzag interface and its dependence on the size of the superlattices are investigated with first-principles density functional calculations. Our results indicate that all of the superlattices show optical anisotropy and the degree of the anisotropy is dependent on the width of graphene segment rather than the composition. Using a unit photon energy as the incident light we find that all the superlattices have low reflectivity and high transmissivity, however, they show high reflective polarization. This kind of superlattices are hoping to be excellent polarized ultraweak photon emission source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]