Several reports have shown band-gap tuning in TMDs, from indirect band gap in the bulk material to a direct gap in single layer due to the absence of interlayer coupling. This unique property stems from the modified electronic states. The phononic properties are extremely modified as well, due to layered effect and quantum size effect. There are several reports on layered effect; however, reports on the confined phonon states in these structures are limited. Thus, we present a preliminary studies of the confined phonon states in TMDs (WS2 and MoS2) quantum dots, and elucidate on the evolution of the phonon lineshape with diameter using a phenomenological model with an envelop function that truncates the phonon wave at the surface of the quantum dot. Furthermore, we delineate the layered effect from the quantum size effect in the phonon lineshape of WS2 and MoS2.

Transition metal dichalcogenides such as WS2 show exciting promise in electronic and optoelectronic applications. Significant variations in the transport, Raman, and photoluminescence (PL) can be found in the literature, yet it is rarely addressed why this is. In this report, Raman and PL of monolayered WS2 produced via different methods are studied and distinct features that indicate the degree of crystallinity of the material are observed. While the intensity of the LA(M) Raman mode is found to be a useful indicator to assess the crystallinity, PL is drastically more sensitive to the quality of the material than Raman spectroscopy. We also show that even exfoliated crystals, which are usually regarded as the most pristine material, can contain large amounts of defects that would not be apparent without Raman and PL measurements. These findings can be applied to the understanding of other two-dimensional heterostructured systems.

Here we report on the photocurrent response of two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures of sputtered MoS2 on boron nitride (BN) deposited on (001)-oriented Si substrates. The steady state photocurrent (I ph) measurements used a continuous laser of λ = 658 nm (E = 1.88 eV) over a broad range of laser intensities, P (∼1 μW < P < 10 μW), and indicate that I ph obtained from MoS2 layers with the 80 nm BN under layer was ∼4 times higher than that obtained from MoS2 layers with the 30 nm BN under layer. We also found super linear dependence of I ph on P (I ph ∝ P γ, with γ > 1) in both the samples. The responsivities obtained over the range of laser intensity studied were in the order of mA/W (∼12 and ∼2.7 mA/W with 80 nm BN and 30 nm BN under layers, respectively). These investigations provide crucial insight into the optical activity of MoS2 on BN, which could be useful for developing a variety of optoelectronic applications with MoS2 or other 2D transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures.

Efficient water desalination constitutes a major challenge for the next years and reverse osmosis membranes will play a key role to achieve this target. In this work, a high-performance reverse osmosis nanocomposite membrane was prepared by interfacial polymerization in presence of multiwalled carbon nanotubes. The effect of carbon nanotubes on the chlorine resistance, antifouling and desalination performance of the nanocomposite membranes was studied. We found that the addition of carbon nanotubes not only improved the membrane performance in terms of flow and antifouling, but also inhibited the chlorine degradation of these membranes. Several reports have acknowledged the benefits of adding carbon nanotubes to aromatic PA nanocomposite membranes, but little attention has been paid to the mechanisms related to the improvement of flow rate, selectivity and chlorine tolerance. We carried out a comprehensive study of the chemical and physical effects of carbon nanotubes on the fully crosslinked polyamide network. The chemical structure, chlorine resistance and membrane degradation was studied by several analytical techniques, permeation and fouling studies, whereas the microstructure of the nanocomposite was studied by small and wide angle X-ray scattering, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, and molecular dynamics. We found that the addition of the nanotube affects the interfacial polymerization, resulting in a polymer network with smaller pore size and higher sodium and chlorine rejection. We simulated the hydration of the membrane in seawater and found that the radial distribution function of water confined in the pores of the nanocomposite membrane exhibited smaller clusters of water molecules, thus suggesting a dense membrane structure. We analysed the network mobility and found that the nanotube provides mechanical stability to the polymer matrix. This study presents solid evidence towards more efficient and robust reverse osmosis membranes using carbon nanotubes as mechanical reinforcing and chlorine protection additive.

Nitrogen-doped multiwalled carbon nanotube (CNT) bundles exhibiting pine-tree-like morphologies were synthesized on silicon–silicon oxide (Si/SiO2) substrates using a pressure-controlled chemical vapor deposition process. Electron field emission (FE) measurements showed a notable emission improvement at low turn-on voltages for the CNT pine-like morphologies (e.g., 0.59 V/µm) in comparison with standard aligned N-doped CNTs (>1.5 V/µm). We envisage that these pine-tree-like structures could be potentially useful in the fabrication of efficient FE and photonic devices.

Besides graphene and hexagonal boron nitride, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) also exhibit a layered structure in which the layers weakly interact via van der Waals forces. Semiconducting TMDs in bulk are indirect band gap materials. However, an isolated sheet exhibits a direct gap. This particular behavior makes them very attractive in terms of optical properties. Moreover, NbS2 and NbSe2 in bulk and their monolayers are metallic. Density functional theory calculations were carried out to study different TMD bilayer systems. First, different bilayer geometries with different stackings were considered. It was found that the indirect and direct band gaps compete; however, the indirect band gap always dominates. Surprisingly, bilayer heterostructures of different TMDs have been found to possess direct band gaps. Finally, heterobilayers composed of one metallic monolayer and a semiconducting layer are predicted as novel metallic van der Waals solids that might find applications in new two-dimensional nanodevices.

We report a systematic study of polarization and magnetic field effects on the optical response of Fe3O4-silicone elastomer composite. The Fe3O4 particles were aligned in a silicone elastomer matrix with an external static magnetic field. Films of composites containing 5wt% of 20nm ≤ d ≤ 30nm Fe3O4 particles aligned in- and out-of-plane in the elastomer host were prepared. The optical spectra of the films were measured with the Perkin-Elmer Lambda 950 UV/vis/NIR spectrometer. We observed a systematic redshift in the optical response of the outof-plane composite films with increasing static magnetic field strength, which saturated near 600 Gauss. We obtained a maximum redshift of ∼46 nm at 600 Gauss. The observed redshift in the optical response of the out-of-plane composite film is attributed to the effect of the magnetic field. This facilitated the formation of the highly aligned particles that induced strong electric dipole in the aligned particles. Interestingly, there were no observable shifts with increasing magnetic field strength in the in-plane films, suggesting that the orientation (polarization) of the magnetic dipole and the induced electric dipole play a crucial role in the optical response.

Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene/graphite nanocomposites were prepared by high-energy cryogenic milling followed by syntering. Microstructure changes shows that graphite was reduced to graphite nanoplatelets by high-energy cryomilling and partial exfoliation of graphite to few layered graphene nanoplatelets occurred in a small extent. The resulting nanocomposites revealed high electrical conductivity and good mechanical performance. Thermal characterization of the nanocomposites was also carried out by differential scanning calorimetry.

Graphene oxide nanoplatelets (GONPs) were obtained by unraveling helical-ribbon carbon nanofibers (HR-CNF) using a modified Hummers and Offeman method in conjunction with ultrasonication. In this account, we carry out a complete evaluation of the effect of different oxidative agent concentrations on the resulting platelet materials. Transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Fourier transform infrared, x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis were performed to carefully characterize GONPs resulting from the oxidative process. Comparative experiments using multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and graphite were also carried out. Our studies suggest that the oxidation treatment is more effective in HR-CNFs than in MWCNTs. Furthermore, the unraveling of HR-CNFs results in GONPs consisting of less stacked layers when compared to other starting materials such as graphite. Therefore, HR-CNFs appear to be excellent precursors to produce few-layered GONPs.