Metallic-phase MoS2 (M-MoS2) is metastable and does not exist in nature. Pure and stable M-MoS2 has not been previously prepared by chemical synthesis, to the best of our knowledge. Here we report a hydrothermal process for synthesizing stable two-dimensional M-MoS2 nanosheets in water. The metal–metal Raman stretching mode at 146 cm−1 in the M-MoS2 structure, as predicted by theoretical calculations, is experimentally observed. The stability of the M-MoS2 is associated with the adsorption of a monolayer of water molecules on both sides of the nanosheets, which reduce restacking and prevent aggregation in water. The obtained M-MoS2 exhibits excellent stability in water and superior activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction, with a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at a low potential of −175 mV and a Tafel slope of 41 mV per decade.

MoS is a promising electrode material for energy storage. However, the intrinsic multilayer pure metallic MoS (M-MoS) has not been investigated for use in supercapacitors. Here, an ultrafast rate supercapacitor with extraordinary capacitance using a multilayer M-MoS-HO system is first investigated. Intrinsic M-MoS with a monolayer of water molecules covering both sides of nanosheets is obtained through a hydrothermal method with water as solvent. The super electrical conductivity of the as-prepared pure M-MoS is beneficial to electron transport for high power supercapacitor. Meanwhile, nanochannels between the layers of M-MoS-HO with a distance of ∼1.18 nm are favorable for increasing the specific space for ion diffusion and enlarging the surface area for ion adsorption. By virtue of this, M-MoS-HO reaches a high capacitance of 380 F/g at a scan rate of 5 mV/s and still maintains 105 F/g at scan rate of 10 V/s. Furthermore, the specific capacitance of the symmetric supercapacitor based on M-MoS-HO electrodes retain a value as high as 249 F/g under 50 mV/s. These findings suggest that multilayered M-MoS-HO system with ion accessible large nanochannels and efficient charge transport provide an efficient energy storage strategy for ultrafast supercapacitors.

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(1) Background: There is a growing need for the development of new methods for the synthesis of nanoparticles. The interest in such particles has raised concerns about the environmental safety of their production methods; (2) Objectives: The current methods of nanoparticle production are often expensive and employ chemicals that are potentially harmful to the environment, which calls for the development of “greener” protocols. Herein we describe the synthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) using plant extracts, which offers an alternative, efficient, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly method to produce well-defined geometries of nanoparticles; (3) Methods: The phytochemicals present in the aqueous leaf extract acted as an effective reducing agent. The generated AuNPs were characterized by Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), and Atomic Force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-visible spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and thermogravimetric analyses (TGA); (4) Results and Conclusions: The prepared nanoparticles were found to be biocompatible and exhibited no antimicrobial or antifungal effect, deeming the particles safe for various applications in nanomedicine. TGA analysis revealed that biomolecules, which were present in the plant extract, capped the nanoparticles and acted as stabilizing agents.

Recent development of group-IV alloy GeSn indicates its bright future for the application of mid-infrared Si photonics. Relaxed GeSn with high material quality and high Sn composition is highly desirable to cover mid-infrared wavelength. However, its crystal growth remains a great challenge. In this work, a systematic study of GeSn strain relaxation mechanism and its effects on Sn incorporation during the material growth via chemical vapor deposition was conducted. It was discovered that Sn incorporation into Ge lattice sites is limited by high compressive strain rather than historically acknowledged chemical reaction dynamics, which was also confirmed by Gibbs free energy calculation. In-depth material characterizations revealed that: (i) the generation of dislocations at Ge/GeSn interface eases the compressive strain, which offers a favorably increased Sn incorporation; (ii) the formation of dislocation loop near Ge/GeSn interface effectively localizes defects, leading to the subsequent low-defect grown GeSn. Following the discovered growth mechanism, a world-record Sn content of 22.3% was achieved. The experiment result shows that even higher Sn content could be obtained if further continuous growth with the same recipe is conducted. This report offers an essential guidance for the growth of high quality high Sn composition GeSn for future GeSn based optoelectronics.