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Viability and future of graphene depends, to a great extent, on a methodology that can mass-produce high-quality graphene in an affordable way. In this work, wet co-milling of low-temperature expandable graphite (LTEG) with bamboo cellulose fibers through a grinder was proved to be a scalable and environmentally friendly approach for the exfoliation/dispersion of graphene-like carbon in an aqueous suspension in which the mechanically isolated cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) acted as a "green" dispersant. The exfoliation/dispersion degree of LTEG was studied as a function of passing times through the grinder. Under the assistance of CNFs, stable aqueous dispersions of CNFs/few-layer graphene (FLG) were obtained. Based on the CNFs/FLG dispersions, a series of nanocomposite films with high mechanical strength and excellent flexibility were fabricated. The tensile strength, Young's modulus, and elongation at break of the CNFs/FLG nanocomposite film were enhanced to 59.14MPa, 4.13GPa and 4.17% respectively after 100 passing times through the grinder. However, with the passing time increased, the electrical conductivity and electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness (EMI SE) decreased, in agreement with the good dispersion of FLG in CNFs matrix. The strategy proposed here is simple, highly efficient, and low in cost, exhibiting great potential for producing exfoliated FLG with few defects at an industrial scale.

Two-dimensional (2D) metallic transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), such as 1T-TiSe2, are ideal systems for exploring the fundamentals in condensed matter physics. However, controlled synthesis of these ultrathin materials has not been achieved. Here, we explored the synthesis of charge density wave (CDW)-bearing 2D TiSe2 with chemical vapor transport (CVT) by extending this bulk crystal growth approach to the surface growth of TiSe2 by introducing suitable growth substrates and dramatically slowing down the growth rate. Sub-10 nm TiSe2 flakes were successfully obtained, showing comparable quality to the mechanically exfoliated thin flakes. A CDW state with 2 × 2 superstructure was clearly observed on these ultrathin flakes by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and the phase transition temperature of these flakes was investigated by transport measurements, confirming the existence of CDW states. Our work opens up a new approach to synthesizing 2D CDW and superconductive TMDCs for exploring new funda...

Mapping local surface charge distribution is critical to the understanding of various surface processes and also allows the detection of molecules binding to the surface. We show here that the optical absorption of monolayer MoS2 is highly sensitive to charge and demonstrate optical imaging of local surface charge distribution with this atomically thin material. We validate the imaging principle and perform charge sensitivity calibration with an electrochemical gate. We further show that binding of charged molecules to the atomically thin material leads to a large change in the image contrast, allowing determination of the charge of the adsorbed molecules. This capability opens possibilities for characterizing impurities and defects in two-dimensional materials and for label-free optical detection and charge analysis of molecules.

Probing the crystallographic orientation of two-dimensional (2D) materials is essential to understand and engineer their properties. However, the nondestructive identification of the lattice orientations of various 2D materials remains a challenge due to their very thin nature. Here, we identify the crystallographic structures of various 2D atomic crystals using molecules as probes by utilizing orientation-dependent molecule–substrate interactions. We discover that the periodic atomic packing of 2D materials guides oleamide molecules to assemble into quasi-one-dimensional nanoribbons with specific alignments which precisely indicate the lattice orientations of the underlying materials. Using oleamide molecules as probes, we successfully identify the crystallographic orientations of ~12 different 2D materials without degrading their intrinsic properties. Our findings allow for the nondestructive identification of the lattice structure of various 2D atomic crystals and shed light on the functionalization of these 2D materials with supramolecular assembly., Identifying the crystallographic orientations of 2D materials is important, but methods to do so are typically destructive. Here, the authors show that the orientational dependency of self-assembled nanoribbons of oleamide molecules can be used to non-invasively probe the lattice orientations of various 2D substrates.

Using the MoS

Low-dimensional semiconductors provide promising ultrathin channels for constructing more-than-Moore devices. However, the prominent contact barriers at the semiconductor-metal electrodes interfaces greatly limit the performance of the obtained devices. Here, a chemical approach is developed for the construction of p-type field-effect transistors (FETs) with low contact barriers by achieving the simultaneous synthesis and integration of 2D PdTe2 with various low-dimensional semiconductors. The 2D PdTe2 synthesized through a quasi-liquid process exhibits high electrical conductivity (≈4.3 × 106 S m-1 ) and thermal conductivity (≈130 W m-1 K-1 ), superior to other transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) and even higher than some metals. In addition, PdTe2 electrodes with desired geometry can be synthesized directly on 2D MoTe2 and other semiconductors to form high-performance p-type FETs without any further treatment. The chemically derived atomically ordered PdTe2 -MoTe2 interface results in significantly reduced contact barrier (65 vs 240 meV) and thus increases the performance of the obtained devices. This work demonstrates the great potential of 2D PdTe2 as contact materials and also opens up a new avenue for the future device fabrication through the chemical construction and integration of 2D components.

Molecular electronics is a promising subject to overcome the size limitation of silicon-based electronic devices. In the past decades, various micro/nanofabrication techniques have been developed for constructing molecular junctions, and a number of breakthroughs are made in the characterizations and applications of the single-molecule device. The history and progress are reviewed in this article, laying emphasis on the recent works on the combination of micro/nanofabrication techniques with other techniques such as electrochemical deposition and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Some prototypical single-molecule devices such as molecular transistors are presented. Finally, the challenges and prospects in the fabrication of single-molecule devices are discussed.

Recent progress in addressing electrically driven single-molecule behaviors has opened up a path toward the controllable fabrication of molecular devices. Herein, the selective fabrication of single-molecule junctions is achieved by employing the external electric field. For molecular junctions with methylthio (-SMe), thioacetate (-SAc), amine (-NH2 ), and pyridyl (-PY), the evolution of their formation probabilities along with the electric field is extracted from the plateau analysis of individual single-molecule break junction traces. With the increase of the electric field, the SMe-anchored molecules show a different trend in the formation probability compared to the other molecular junctions, which is consistent with the density functional theory calculations. Furthermore, switching from an SMe-anchored junction to an SAc-anchored junction is realized by altering the electric field in a mixed solution. The results in this work provide a new approach to the controllable fabrication and modulation of single-molecule junctions and other bottom-up nanodevices at molecular scales.

2D MoS2 has emerged as a promising alternative to Pt-based catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to its low cost and earth abundance. However, insufficient active sites of basal plane and poor conductivity become the foremost factors restricting the catalytic performance of MoS2 . Here, a facile strategy is presented to enhance the HER performance of MoS2 by converting its 2D structure into 1D/2D heterostructures of Mo6 Te6 /MoS2(1- x ) Te2 x by the in situ tellurization. As-prepared 1D/2D heterostructures exhibit excellent HER performance with the Tafel slope of ≈56 mV dec-1 (only one-third of that for pristine MoS2 ). The enhanced HER catalytic activity is attributed to more Te/S vacancies introduced by tellurization, which serve as the active sites as suggested by theoretical calculations. Besides, the formation of highly conductive well-aligned quasi-1D Mo6 Te6 nanobelts facilitate charge transport in HER. Previous work provides a facile approach to construct mixed dimensional materials, and opens up a new avenue to the properties modulation of 2D transition metal chalcogenides.

Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) with layered structures provide a unique platform for exploring the effect of number of layers on their fundamental properties. However, the thickness scaling effect on the chemical properties of these materials remains unexplored. Here, we explored the chemically induced phase transition of 2D molybdenum disulfide (MoS

In this work, the vertical electrical transport behavior of bilayer MoS

van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures synthesized through the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method allow the creation and tuning of intriguing electronic and optical properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials. Especially, local structures in the heterostructures, such as interfaces, edges, and point defects, are critical for their wide range of potential applications. However, up to now atomic-scale measurements of local structures in as-grown 2D heterostructures on insulating substrates are still rare. Here we report our scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS) study of as-grown MoS2 monolayer and WS2/MoS2 heterobilayer on SiO2. The heterobilayer appears smoother than the MoS2 monolayer, with a root-mean-square roughness of 0.230 nm in the former and 0.329 nm in the latter. For the first time, to our knowledge, we directly observed a novel type of continuous interface between the MoS2 monolayer and the top layer of the heterobilayer with atomic resolution. Our STS results and density f...

Controlled stacking of different two-dimensional (2D) atomic layers will greatly expand the family of 2D materials and broaden their applications. A novel approach for synthesizing MoS2 /WS2 heterostructures by chemical vapor deposition has been developed. The successful synthesis of pristine MoS2 /WS2 heterostructures is attributed to using core-shell WO3-x /MoO3-x nanowires as a precursor, which naturally ensures the sequential growth of MoS2 and WS2 . The obtained heterostructures exhibited high crystallinity, strong interlayer interaction, and high mobility, suggesting their promising applications in nanoelectronics. The stacking orientations of the two layers were also explored from both experimental and theoretical aspects. It is elucidated that the rational design of precursors can accurately control the growth of high-quality 2D heterostructures. Moreover, this simple approach opens up a new way for creating various novel 2D heterostructures by using a large variety of heteronanomaterials as precursors.

The conventional strategies employed for the synthesis of hollow nanofibers (HNFs) require either multistep treatments or special design of the equipment. An additional annealing process is always required, which inevitably consumes more energy and raises the manufacturing cost. In addition, the annealing process may also cause a waste of the matrix materials and the release of toxic gases. Herein, we report for the first time a novel one-step synthesis of hollow hybrid nanofibers via electrospinning. Cellulose was chosen as the polymer matrix, and Fe(OH)

Developing controlled approaches for synthesizing high-quality two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors is essential for their practical applications in novel electronics. The application of chemical vapor transport (CVT), an old single-crystal growth technique, has been extended from growing 3D crystals to synthesizing 2D atomic layers by tuning the growth kinetics. Both single crystalline individual flakes and continuous films of 1 L MoS2 were successfully obtained with CVT approach at low growth temperatures of 300–600 °C. The obtained 1 L MoS2 exhibits high crystallinity and comparable mobility to mechanically exfoliated samples, as confirmed by both atomic resolution microscopic imaging and electrical transport measurements. Besides MoS2, this method was also used in the growth of 2D WS2, MoSe2, MoxW1−xS2 alloys, and ReS2, thus opening up a new way for the controlled synthesis of various 2D semiconductors.

Time delays widely exist in the complex dynamical systems. In this paper, time-delay complex dynamical systems are studied by analyzing the properties of corresponding Julia sets. Experimental results show that the stability of complex dynamical system changes greatly due to the influence of time delay. The variations in time-delay Julia sets are studied. In addition, the conditions holding the dynamical systems stable are found. Time delay affects the stability of complex dynamical systems, and the existence of the fixed and periodic points is also discussed.

Two-dimensional (2D) metallic transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), such as 1T-TiSe

Using the MoS2 -WTe2 heterostructure as a model system combined with electrochemical microreactors and density function theory calculations, it is shown that heterostructured contacts enhance the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity of monolayer MoS2 . Two possible mechanisms are suggested to explain this enhancement: efficient charge injection through large-area heterojunctions between MoS2 and WTe2 and effective screening of mirror charges due to the semimetallic nature of WTe2 . The dielectric screening effect is proven minor, probed by measuring the HER activity of monolayer MoS2 on various support substrates with dielectric constants ranging from 4 to 300. Thus, the enhanced HER is attributed to the increased charge injection into MoS2 through large-area heterojunctions. Based on this understanding, a MoS2 /WTe2 hybrid catalyst is fabricated with an HER overpotential of -140 mV at 10 mA cm-2 , a Tafel slope of 40 mV dec-1 , and long stability. These results demonstrate the importance of interfacial design in transition metal dichalcogenide HER catalysts. The microreactor platform presents an unambiguous approach to probe interfacial effects in various electrocatalytic reactions.

The controlled synthesis of high-quality multilayer (ML) MoS

A vertical point heterostructure (VPH) is constructed by sandwiching a two-dimensional (2D) MoS

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has shown great potential in synthesizing various high-quality two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs). However, the nondestruction transfer of these CVD-grown 2D TMDCs at a high yield remains a key challenge for applying these emerging materials in various aspects. To address this challenge, we designed a water-soluble transfer mediator consisting of two polymers, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), which can form strong interactions with CVD-grown 2D TMDCs for the nondestruction transfer of these materials. With this mediator, we realized the physical transfer of CVD-grown MoS2 flakes and several other 2D TMDCs, including 2D alloys and heterostructures to a wide range of substrates at a high yield of90% with well-retained properties as evidenced by various microscopic, spectroscopic, and electrical measurements. Field-effect transistors (FETs) made on thus-transferred CVD-grown MoS2 monolayers exhibited obviously higher mobility than those transferred by chemical method. We also constructed several artificial 2D crystals showing very strong interlayer coupling by the multiple transfer of CVD-grown 2D TMDCs monolayers with this approach. This transfer approach will make versatile CVD-grown 2D materials and their artificial stacks with pristine qualities easily accessible for both fundamental studies and practical applications.

The use of recycled rubber in preparation of acoustic absorbent materials will help to combat the existing environmental problems of both waste disposal and noise pollution. The focus of this work is to investigate the influence of mechanochemical pretreatment of ground tire rubber (GTR) on the acoustic absorption properties of polyurethane (PU)/GTR foamed composites. GTR subjected to pan-milling could be mechanochemically devulcanized by breaking up the crosslinked structures through inducing fairly strong shearing and compressing forces. The significant increase in sol fraction of GTR confirmed the partial devulcanization during pan-milling. Moreover, thermal gravimetric analysis indicated that rubber content in the soluble part of GTR was also remarkably increased. The devulcanization increased flexible chains of the GTR particles, which could help to improve damping properties as well as acoustic absorption ability of the PU/GTR foamed composites. Dynamic mechanical analysis and acoustic absorption measurements well confirmed this hypothesis. The loss modulus and sound absorption coefficient of PU/GTR foamed composites were remarkably increased through the mechanochemical pretreatment of GTR. The mechanochemical pretreatment also enhanced foamability of the composites as revealed by cell morphology. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013

Mechanochemically devulcanized ground fluoroelastomer (FKM) was used as a low-cost functional additive for the enhancement of the thermal stability of nitrile–butadiene rubber (NBR) vulcanizates. Without the use of any chemicals, the stress-induced mechanochemical devulcanization of ground FKM was achieved through solid-state mechanochemical milling at ambient temperature. The sol fraction of the ground FKM was increased from its original 1.4 to 19.8% after milling; this confirmed the realization of the mechanochemical devulcanization of FKM. Moreover, the oxygen-containing polar groups on the surface of the mechanochemically milled FKM benefitted its interfacial adhesion with the polar NBR matrix. The curing characteristics and mechanical properties of the devulcanized, FKM-filled NBR vulcanizates were investigated and compared with those of the untreated FKM-filled NBR vulcanizates. The results show that the mechanical properties of the devulcanized FKM-filled NBR vulcanizates were much better than those of the untreated FKM-filled NBR vulcanizates. The presence of the reclaimed FKM significantly increased the onset degradation temperature of the NBR vulcanizates as a result of the improved polymer–filler interaction, uniform dispersion, and high thermal stability of the reclaimed FKM. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012

In this work, the vertical electrical transport behavior of bilayer MoS2 under the coupling of force and light was explored by the use of conductive atomic force microscopy. We found that the current-voltage behavior across the tip-MoS2-Pt junction is a tunneling current that can be well fitted by a Simmons approximation. The transport behavior is direct tunneling at low bias and Fowler-Nordheim tunneling at high bias, and the transition voltage and tunnel barrier height are extracted. The effect of force and light on the effective band gap of the junction is investigated. Furthermore, the source-drain current drops surprisingly when we continually increase the force, and the dropping point is altered by the provided light. This mechanism is responsible for the tuning of tunneling barrier height and width by force and light. These results provide a new way to design devices that take advantage of ultrathin two-dimensional materials. Ultrashort channel length electronic components that possess tunneling current are important for establishing high-efficiency electronic and optoelectronic systems.

In this work the elastic field of an edge dislocation in a half-space with the effect of surface energy has been obtained. The elastic field is then used to study the image force on the dislocation, the critical thickness for dislocation generation in epitaxial thin films with strain mismatch and the yielding strength of thin films on substrates. The results show that the image forces on the dislocation deviate from the conventional solutions when the distance of the dislocation from the free surface is smaller than several times of the characteristic length. Also due to the effect of surface energy, the critical thickness for dislocation generation is smaller than that predicted by the conventional elastic solutions and the extent of the deviation depends on the magnitude of mismatch strain. In contrast, the effect of surface energy on the yielding strength for many practical thin films can be neglected except for some soft ones where the characteristic length is comparable to the thickness.

In this study, the period-[Formula: see text] steady regions of McMullen family M sets are discussed. The calculation methods of the numbers of period-[Formula: see text] steady regions are presented and the center points and boundaries of period-1 are studied by complex dynamical system theory. In addition, the problem about the free critical points is discussed. The experimental results show that the free critical points do not influence the distributions of period-[Formula: see text] steady regions when [Formula: see text], which is proved theoretically.

The controlled synthesis of high-quality multilayer (ML) MoS2 flakes with gradually shrinking basal planes by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is demonstrated. These CVD-grown ML MoS2 flakes exhibit much higher mobility and current density than mechanically exfoliated ML flakes due to the reduced contact resistance which mainly resulted from direct contact between the lower MoS2 layers and electrodes.

A vertical point heterostructure (VPH) is constructed by sandwiching a two-dimensional (2D) MoS2 flake with two cross-stacked metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes. It can be used as a field-effect transistor with high on/off ratio and a light detector with high spatial resolution. Moreover, the hybrid 1D-2D-1D VPHs open up new possibilities for nanoelectronics and nano-optoelectronics.

The intelligent and information industries are rapidly developing and will have larger and larger shares in the GNP. Most components of these high-tech industries are made of small-scale low-dimensional materials, such as thin films, filaments and microstructure. As the thin film is one of the basic constructional elements, the scientific research in the thin film materials, especially for mechanical behavior research, attracts special attention. The mechanical properties of the materials that have microscale in the direction of thickness may be different form those of the microscale materials, but it is a valuable facto of working reliability for microstructure. So the experimental study on the mechanical properties, especially some of the basic nonlinear mechanical properties, is necessary and significant in constructing mechanical model, optimizing design, analyzing the quality and reliability of the components.© (2002) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

films was determined to be KIC= 1.89 0.10 and 0.17 0.02 MPa m 0.5 , respectively. From measurements of the saturated crack density, the critical interfacial shear stress was estimated to be c = 39.5 8.3 and 66.6 6.1 MPa, respectively. The toughness of nanometer-scale alumina was comparable to that of alumina thin films grown using other techniques, whereas alucone was quite brittle. The use of alucone as a spacer layer between alumina films was not found to increase the critical strain at fracture for the composite films. This performance is attributed to the low toughness of alucone. The experimental results were supported by companion simulations using fracture mechanics formalism for multilayer films. To aid future development, the modeling method was used to study the increase in the toughness and elastic modulus of the spacer layer required to render improved critical strain at fracture. These results may be applied to a broad variety of multilayer material systems composed of ceramic and spacer layers to yield robust coatings for use in chemical barrier and other applications. © 2009 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.3124642

As the classical ones among the fractal sets, Julia set (abbreviated as J set) and Mandelbrot set (abbreviated as M set) have been explored widely in recent years. In this study, J set and M set under additive noise perturbation and multiplicative noise perturbation are created by equipotential point algorithm. Changes of the J set and M set under random noise perturbation as well as the close correlation between them are studied. Experimental results show that either additive noise perturbation or multiplicative noise perturbation may cause dramatic changes on J set. On the other hand, when the M set is perturbed by additive noise, it almost changes nothing but its position; when the M set is perturbed by multiplicative noise, its inner structures change with the stabilized areas shrinking, but it keeps the symmetry with respect to X axis. In addition, the J set and the M set still share the same stabilized periodic point in spite of noise perturbation.

In this study, the quaternion Mandelbrot sets and Julia sets (abbreviated as M–J sets) with additive and multiplicative noise perturbations are constructed and the changes of their fractal characteristics are explored. The experimental results show that the quaternion M sets with additive noise perturbations move in the direction of the noise, while the structures remain unchanged. The quaternion J sets with additive noise perturbations change dramatically both in the structures and in the periodicities. The quaternion M sets with multiplicative noise perturbations present scaling and rotation, while the stable regions maintain the same distributions as the non-perturbed M sets. The structures and the periodicities of the J sets change under multiplicative noise perturbations, keeping different sensitivity to the noise parameters. The M sets and J sets still share the same stable points under both the additive and multiplicative noise perturbations.