Unveiling the oxidation behavior of liquid-phase exfoliated antimony nanosheets

Abstract

Antimonene, a monolayer of β-antimony, is increasingly attracting considerable attention, more than that of other monoelemental two-dimensional materials, due to its intriguing physical and chemical properties. Under ambient conditions, antimonene exhibits a high thermodynamic stability and good structural integrity. Some theoretical calculations predicted that antimonene would have a high oxidation tendency. However, it remains poorly investigated from the experimental point of view. In this work, we study the oxidation behavior of antimonene nanosheets (ANS) prepared by ultrasonication-assisted liquid-phase exfoliation. Using a set of forefront analytical techniques, a clear effect of sonication time on the surface chemistry of prepared ANS is found. A dynamic oxidation behavior has been observed, which upon annealing at moderate temperature (210 °C) resulted in a semiconducting behavior with a bandgap of approximately 1 eV measured by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. This study yields valuable information for future applications of antimonene and paves the way towards novel modification approaches in order to tailor its properties and complement its limitations.

Two-Dimensional Antimony Oxide

“…This is also in good agreement with recent experimental findings on liquid-phase exfoliated few-layer antimonene. 33 All type (II) single-layer antimonene oxides presented here are semiconductors with stoichiometry-dependent band gaps ranging from approximately 0.8 eV to 4.9 eV. Our results thus pave the way for tailoring the electronic band structure of antimonene flakes via controlled oxidation and will guide future development of antimonene-based 2D materials and heterostructures.…”

“…33 Ref. [33] reports the formation of a passivation layer on the surface, which shows evidence for Sb 2 O 3 -like layers. Raman measurements reveal characteristic modes in the range of 190-450 cm −1 .…”

A study of dopant incorporation in Te-doped GaAsSb nanowires using a combination of XPS/UPS, and C-AFM/SKPM

“…The peaks observed in R and N samples at 528.6 eV and 538 eV (Fig. 1 c,f,i,l) are associated with the doublet Sb 3d 5/2 and Sb 3d 3/2 , respectively 50 , attributed to Sb–Sb bond and 531.8 eV corresponds to O 1s 44 . From the XPS core-level spectra, the concentration of O 1s is found to be < 1% in the intrinsic and doped GaAsSb samples.…”

Continuous‐Flow Synthesis of High‐Quality Few‐Layer Antimonene Hexagons

“…The hexagon is mainly composed of Sb and a noticeable amount of oxygen located at the surface and edges of the nanosheet, indicating a native oxidation layer of Sb 2 O 3 . [ 15,27,28 ] Additionally, a significant C signal was detected on the edges of the nanosheet, most probably as a result of the presence of capping agents as well as contamination from residual solvents. [ 29 ] The presence of S was not detected on the surface, in good agreement with XPS and thermogravimetric analysis coupled to gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (TG‐GC‐MS), in which ODE, OA, and 9‐octadecenenitrile (an impurity from the OA) were the predominant species detected (Figure S17, Supporting Information).…”

“…[ 14 ] However, we have recently proven that partial surface oxidation occurs during the LPE process hampering the practical use of this material in electronics. [ 15 ] Additionally, the chemical synthesis of antimonene has been recently reported using a flash injection method giving rise to the formation of crystalline hexagons of antimonene with nanometric thickness. [ 16 ] Although this method provides a significant advance, it is limited to a batch‐to‐batch synthesis.…”