Liquid-phase exfoliation of violet phosphorus for electronic applications

Abstract

Large-scale production of two-dimensional (2D) materials still is a crucial point toward its practical applications. Violet phosphorus (VP) with a wide bandgap accelerates and broadens the potential applications of elemental phosphorus in optoelectronics. Here, we demonstrate the scalable production of solution-processable violet phosphorus flakes stably dispersed in several solvents. The exfoliated VP flakes exhibit thickness-dependent visible photoluminescence characteristics, which covers the shortcoming of black phosphorus. Meanwhile, the VP-based field-effect transistor reveals relatively competitive electrical properties to other liquid-phase exfoliated 2D materials. Our study paves the way for a wide range of applications of optical devices, energy storage, catalysis, and sodium batteries based on large-scale VP flakes.