Stability and universal encapsulation of epitaxial Xenes

In the realm of two-dimensional material frameworks, single-element graphene-like lattices, known as Xenes, pose several issues concerning their environmental stability, with implications for their use in technology transfer to a device layout. In this Discussion, we scrutinize the chemical reactivity of epitaxial silicene, taken as a case in point, in oxygen-rich environments. The oxidation of silicene is detailed by means of a photoemission spectroscopy study upon carefully dosing molecular oxygen under vacuum and subsequent exposure to ambient conditions, showing different chemical reactivity. We therefore propose a sequential Al2O3 encapsulation of silicene as a solution to face degradation, proving its effectiveness by virtue of the interaction between silicene and a silver substrate. Based on this method, we generalize our encapsulation scheme to a large number of metal-supported Xenes by taking into account the case of epitaxial phosphorene-on-gold.

Automated summary

The chemical reactivity of Xenes materials in oxygen-rich environments was studied, with the proposal of using sequential Al2O3 encapsulation as a solution to degradation issues. The effectiveness of this encapsulation method was demonstrated through the interaction between silicene and a silver substrate, leading to a generalization of the scheme to a variety of metal-supported Xenes.