A colloidal route to semiconducting tungsten disulfide nanosheets with monolayer thickness

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are a class of materials that have been extensively studied in the last decade, with molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) being the main protagonist. Typically, the interesting TMD properties, e.g. a direct band gap transition, or broken inversion symmetry, are only present in monolayer thick TMDs, and in the absence of strong lateral confinement, we require different materials or alloys thereof when we want to obtain TMDs with varying (direct) band gap energies. With this in mind, tungsten disulfide (WS2) is emerging as a direct competitor of MoS2 due to its similar properties but larger band gap energy. While several colloidal strategies have been reported for the synthesis of WS2, the synthesis of monolayer WS2 and detailed studies on the effect of synthesis parameters on the synthesis outcome have remained elusive. In this work we therefore focused on a colloidal synthesis method for monolayer WS2 using a design of experiment (DOE) approach. After optimization, we obtained nanosheets with a band gap transition consistent with the expected value for a monolayer. The thickness was further confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. While we could identify two temperature ranges where we could obtain a monolayer, sample characterization by XPS spectroscopy revealed the presence of different ratios of the metallic phase, with the sample synthesized at lower temperature displaying a lower concentration of the metallic phase.

Automated summary

This study focused on the synthesis of tungsten disulfide (WS2) monolayers using a colloidal method, with detailed investigation on the impact of synthesis parameters. Nanosheets with monolayer characteristics were successfully obtained after optimization, confirmed by Raman spectroscopy.