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Download fileUnravelling Work Function Contributions and Their Engineering in 2H-MoS2 Single Crystal Discovered by Molecular Probe Interaction
journal contribution
posted on 2020-03-14, 14:43 authored by Amir Ghiami, Melanie Timpel, Marco V. Nardi, Andrea Chiappini, Petr Nozar, Alberto Quaranta, Roberto VerucchiIn
this study, a comprehensive investigation of the role of sulfur
vacancies on the electronic structure and surface reactivity of molybdenum
disulfide is presented. A 2H-MoS2 single crystal was annealed
at two different temperatures, namely, 300 and 500 °C in vacuum,
in order to generate sulfur vacancies in a controlled manner. The
detailed characterization of the electronic structure by means of
X-ray and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy clearly evidences
the formation of a strong surface dipole as well as surface band bending
due to the excess of negative charge on the Mo centers, as a consequence
of the generated sulfur vacancies. After thermal treatment, a mercaptoundecylphosphonic
acid molecule, which consists of a thiol (S–H) tail group and
a phosphonic acid group on the other end, was covalently attached
on the surface through wet chemical functionalization in order to
refill the sulfur vacancies. As a consequence of the vacancy refilling,
the surface band bending is reversed and the surface dipole is remarkably
decreased, being close to the initial value of the pristine surface.