EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

Two-dimensional (2D) sulfides such as MoS2, SnS2 or SnS have exciting application potential in catalysis, energy storage/conversion and electronics. Liquid phase exfoliation (LPE) is a facile way to obtain 2D sulfides in a potentially scalable way. Current LPE recipies however often rely on organic media ("solvents") that are toxic and suffer from high boiling points and are thus hard to remove/exchange after LPE. Alternatively, other current LPE recipes rely on surfactants in aqueous medium, which however can also be hard to remove from the obtained 2D nanoflakes and for which the aqueous medium makes subsequent processing towards 2D/non-2D nanohybrids with hydrolysis-prone chemicals difficult. Therefore for various envisioned 2D/non-2D hybrid synthesis protocolls and applications, 2D sulfide LPE in non-toxic, low-boiling-point organic solvents would be desirable. Towards this goal, we here present results of LPE of SnS2, SnS and MoS2 in neat simple alcohols. Structural, chemical and morphological characterisation indicates that this is a viable route for 2D sulfide LPE with results on par with other less easy to handle LPE media.