posted on 2015-12-22, 22:46authored byJack R. Brent, David J. Lewis, Tommy Lorenz, Edward A. Lewis, Nicky Savjani, Sarah
J. Haigh, Gotthard Seifert, Brian Derby, Paul O’Brien
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.