Mechanical Exfoliation of Multilayer Pseudohalogen-Bridged Nanosheets

• Published in: The journal of physical chemistry letters 2023-11, Vol.14 (46), p.10420-10426
• Main Authors: Li, Guanping, Stefanczyk, Olaf, Jia, Fangda, Nagashima, Shuntaro, Kumar, Kunal, Imoto, Kenta, Tokoro, Hiroko, Ohkoshi, Shin-ichi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1948-7185; 1948-7185
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c02257

The development of nanolayered materials is one of the greatest challenges in nanoscience. Until now, pseudohalogen-bridged nanosheets using the mechanical exfoliation method have not been reported. A state-of-the-art material, {[FeII(3-acetylpyridine)2][HgII(μ-SCN)4]}n (1), has been developed to achieve the goal. The compound forms a two-dimensional (2D) coordination polymer with weak out-of-plane van der Waals interactions and has an intrinsic tendency to form shear planes perpendicular to the crystallographic c-direction. These structural features predispose 1 to mechanical exfoliation realized by employing the "Scotch-tape method". As a result, nanosheets were fabricated and characterized by digital optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. The nanosheets were found to have a minimum thickness of ∼15 nm and a lateral size of several micrometers. As the first example of thiocyanato-bridged coordination nanosheets, these materials extend the scope of 2D materials and potentially pave the way toward developing nanolayered materials.