In this study, flakes
of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) with controlled size and
thickness are prepared through sequential solvent exchange method
by sonication in dimethylformamide (DMF) and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone
(NMP) solvents. While NMP acts more effectively in reducing the thickness
of flakes, DMF shows better potential in conserving the lateral size
of nanosheets. The distribution of size and thickness of nanoflakes
as a function of sonication time verifies that extended sonication
results in dramatic drop of the dimension of the exfoliated flakes.
This technique leads to the formation of few-layered MoS2 flakes without further drop of their lateral dimensions. It has
been observed that by exposing the bulk MoS2 powders to
oxygen plasma, the exfoliation process is accelerated without converting
to 2H-MoS2 structures. Finally, a phototransistor has been
fabricated based on few-layered MoS2 layers with a field
effect mobility of ∼2.1 cm2 V–1 s–1 showing a high response to laser excitation
of 532 nm wavelength.
We study mechanically exfoliated nanosheets of franckeite by quantitative optical microscopy. The analysis of transmission-mode and epi-illumination-mode optical microscopy images provides a rapid method to estimate the thickness of the exfoliated flakes at first glance. A quantitative analysis of the optical contrast spectra by means of micro-reflectance allows one to determine the refractive index of franckeite over a broad range of the visible spectrum through a fit of the acquired spectra to a model based on the Fresnel law.
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