Center for Functional Nanomaterials Seminar

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted great attention during the last decade, benefitting from their rich variety of chemical and crystal structures defining unique physical and chemical properties overall outperforming traditional nanomaterials. More specifically, the electronic and optical properties could either be tuned by varying the atomic combinations and structural motif, or by varying the number of layers in the same type of material. The ultra-flat surface makes it facile for 2D materials to stack up with each other, forming Van der Waals heterostructures which could serve as active materials of elementary unit in electronic devices such as FETs and p-n junctions.

Apart from the intrinsic high-performances of 2D materials as semiconductors, their large surface-to-volume ratio and flat surfaces enables them to interact actively with the local environment, including neighbouring organic molecules. These molecules, either physisorbed or chemisorbed on the surface of 2D semiconductors, are able to markedly influence the properties of the latter component. This talk will introduce the interactions between organic species and 2D semiconducting materials (transition metal dichalcogenides, black phosphorus, indium selenide) in the following aspects: i) fundamental physico-chemical properties of the organic-2D material heterostructure. ii) fabrication and characterizations of molecular functionalized electronic devices and potential applications.