Mass production of graphene-like single-crystalline NbSe2 (004) nanosheets via intercalant-assisted thermal cleavage

The author reports the mass production of dense inorganic graphene-like exfoliated single-crystalline niobium diselenide (NbSe2) (004) multilayered nanosheets standing on quartz substrate. Similar to the most-used micromechanical cleavage to exfoliated NbSe2 nanosheets, the synthesis was performed starting directly from bulk powdered counterparts, but using a novel type of substrate-irrelevant vapor-phase exfoliation. A possible intercalant-assisted thermal cleavage growth mechanism for the NbSe2-derived nanosheets, including a combination of intercalant injection-atomic delamination-thermal exfoliation-lateral growth, is discussed. This two-component nanosheet-forming technique appears to potentially work on homologous series of sandwich-type inorganic layered 2H transition-metal dichalcogenide compounds under proper experimental conditions as well.