Pnictogen (As, Sb, Bi) Nanosheets for Electrochemical Applications Are Produced by Shear Exfoliation Using Kitchen Blenders

Abstract

Layered materials are of high importance because of their anisotropyand as asource of 2D materials.Whilst there is aplethora of multi-elemental 2D materials,the number monoelemental 2D materials is rather limited. Herein, we demonstrate that aqueous shear exfoliation can be used to obtain As, Sb,and Bi exfoliated nanosheets.Morphological and chemical characterization of the exfoliated materials shows adecrease in thickness,sheet-to-nanosheet scale,and partial oxidation owing to ah igher surface area. The electrochemical performance is tested in terms of inherent electrochemistry,e lectron transfer, and sensing applications as demonstrated with ascorbic acid. Potential energy-related applications are evaluated in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), with shearexfoliated Sb having the best electrochemical performance overall. These findings will have ap rofound impact on the preparation and application of 2D mono-elemental materials.Supportinginformation and the ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under: https://doi.

Centimeter‐scale growth of two‐dimensional layered high‐mobility bismuth films by pulsed laser deposition

“…The positions of these Raman peaks are also independent of the film thickness, indicating that the Bi films are unstrained. Similar results have also been obtained from the shear‐exfoliated Bi nanosheets according to the recent report . Because of their ultrathin thickness, 2D‐layered materials are easy to interact with the gas molecules in air.…”

“…Similar results have also been obtained from the shear-exfoliated Bi nanosheets according to the recent report. 29 Because of their ultrathin thickness, 2D-layered materials are easy to interact with the gas molecules in air. Thus, environmental stability of the 2D materials is significant for further developing device applications and massive manufacture.…”

“…Up to now, 2D Bi films have been realized by various techniques from both top‐down and bottom‐up ways, such as liquid‐based exfoliation, molecular beam epitaxy, and acid intercalated exfoliation . Meanwhile, the epitaxially grown Bi thin films can be directly dry transferred to a secondary substrate, which could maintain the structural, optical, and electrical properties quite similar to the as‐grown Bi films .…”

Novel two-dimensional monoelemental and ternary materials: growth, physics and application

“…Nowadays, mechanical exfoliation (ME) [62,67], liquid-phase exfoliation (LPE) [64,[71][72][73] and vdWs epitaxial growth [65] are mainly used to obtain 2D black/ gray arsenic and arsenene. In 2018, Chen et al and Zhong et al fabricated Hall-bar devices and back-gated monolayer b-As FETs by using the well-known scotch-tape method, respectively.…”

“…The bulk Bi with a rhombohedral structure may not adopt real vdWs bonded layered structure; thus, it is challenging to exfoliate into thinner layers using the traditional top-down micromechanical exfoliation approach. Gusmão et al have developed the aqueous shear exfoliation to obtain pnictogen (As, Sb and Bi) nanosheets [72]. In their experiments, bulk crystals of As, Sb and Bi were subjected to shear dispersion and exfoliation in aqueous surfactant sodium cholate for 2 h, during which the liquid-phase shear, turbulence and collisions can lead to a gentle lateral force self-lubricating exfoliation of the pnictogen materials.…”