We report the liquid exfoliation of black phosphorus in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone to form few-layer phosphorene nanosheets.

The liquid-phase exfoliation of tin(II) sulfide to produce SnS nanosheets in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone is reported. The material is characterized by Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, lattice-resolution scanning transmission electron microscope imaging, and energy dispersive X-ray spectrum imaging. Quantum chemical calculations on the optoelectronic characteristics of bulk and 10-layer down to monolayer SnS have been performed using a quantum chemical density functional tight-binding approach. The optical properties of the SnS and centrifugally fractionated SnS nanosheet dispersions were compared to that predicted by theory. Through centrifugation, bilayer SnS nanosheets can be produced size-selectively. The scalable solution processing of semiconductor SnS nanosheets is the key to their commercial exploitation and is potentially an important step toward the realization of a future electronics industry based on two-dimensional materials.

We report the electrochemical detection of the redox active cardiac biomarker myoglobin (Mb) using aptamer-functionalized black phosphorus nanostructured electrodes by measuring direct electron transfer. The as-synthesized few-layer black phosphorus nanosheets have been functionalized with poly-l-lysine (PLL) to facilitate binding with generated anti-Mb DNA aptamers on nanostructured electrodes. This aptasensor platform has a record-low detection limit (∼0.524 pg mL(-1)) and sensitivity (36 μA pg(-1) mL cm(-2)) toward Mb with a dynamic response range from 1 pg mL(-1) to 16 μg mL(-1) for Mb in serum samples. This strategy opens up avenues to bedside technologies for multiplexed diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases in complex human samples.

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Zeise's salt gets company: 185 years after the report of the well‐known platinum(II) ethylene compound, examples of isolable olefin complexes of its isoelectronic neighbor in the periodic table, gold(III), have been prepared (see picture). The complexes are very susceptible towards nucleophilic attack; there is also structural evidence for AuIII–Ag interactions.