Phosphorene: a New Platform for Multifunctional Materials
Phosphorene is a 2D material consisting of a single ordered layer of phosphorus atoms and can be prepared by exfoliation of black phosphorus, one of the crystalline forms of elemental phosphorus. 2D materials have attracted a great deal of interest for some years for their potential use in different fields. Among these, the best known, graphene, progenitor of the family, has monopolized the attention of physicists and chemists for the combination of structural and functional properties. Its effective applicability in micro and nanoelectronics was then shown to be severely limited since graphene is a conductor. This limitation could be overcome by using phosphorene, which is a semiconductor with a natural band gap proportional to the number of layers of phosphorus atoms, or the number of 2D “sheets” stacked on top of each other. This characteristic therefore makes it possible to modulate the response of a micro- or nano-electronic device as a function of the number of layers of the material.
The aim of the PHOSFUN project is to create first and foremost scalable and reproducible synthesis protocols of mono and multilayer phosphorene, then to functionalize the material with organic and inorganic groups. Doping of phosphorene will provide new 2D layers with heteroatoms. The functionality of these innovative 2D materials will be validated using phosphorene derivatives on device platforms in applications in materials science, catalysis, microelectronics and optoelectronic devices.
Project results will provide an overview of how the chemical and physical properties of phosphorene can be modulated. This will greatly expand fundamental knowledge on phosphorus-based materials and pave the way for new applications.