PHOSPHORENE: THE P-ANALOGUE OF GRAPHENE

Recently it was discovered that black phosphorus (BP), a bulk layered material, can be exfoliated either by Scotch tape method1 or by ultrasound activation in a medium with high dielectric constant2. The monolayer BP nanosheet, nicknamed phosphorene, which results from the exfoliation procedure, is a new 2D material endowed with peculiar characteristics, due to its puckered honeycomb structure, but unlike graphene, possesses intrinsic semiconductor properties. This opens the way to many important applications for high-performance electronic and optoelectronic devices.3 In this lecture, we'll focus on the preparation of phosphorene by liquid exfoliation in dimethylsulfoxide especially highlighting the unexpected role of water in the process. Moreover, our preliminary studies on the functionalization of phosphorene will be presented and discussed, highlighting, for instance, the immobilization of transition metal nanoparticles on the polyphosphorus network aimed at preparing new advanced nanostructured catalysts. Acknowledgement: Thanks are expressed to EC for funding the project PHOSFUN "Phosphorene functionalization: a new platform for advanced multifunctional materials" (ERC ADVANCED GRANT 2015 - 2019; grant agreement n°670173) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. References 1 a) Reich, E.S.; Nature 2014, 506, 19; b) Li, K.; Yu, Y.J.; Ye, G.J.; Ge, Q.Q.; Ou, X.D.; Wu, H.; Feng, D.L.; Chen, X.H.; Zhang, Y.B.; Nat. Nanotechnol. 2014, 9, 372-377. 2 a) Brent, R.; Savjani, N.; Lewis, E.A.; Haigh, S.J.; Lewis, D. J.; O'Brien, P.; Chem. Commun. 2014, 50, 13338-13341; b) Yasaei, P.; Kumar, B.; Foroozan, T.; Wang, C.; Asadi, M.; Tuschel, D.; Indacochea, J.E.; Klie, R. F.; Salehi-Khojin, A.; Adv. Mater. 2015, 27, 1887-1892. 3 Zhang, X.; Tan, C.; Lin, J.; Li, H.; Sun, L.; Chen, W.; Huang, W.; Zhang, H.; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 3653-3657.