Black Phosphorus Nanosheets: Synthesis, Characterization and Applications

• Published in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) Vol. 12; no. 26; pp. 3480 - 3502
• Main Authors: Eswaraiah, Varrla, Zeng, Qingsheng, Long, Yi, Liu, Zheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.07.2016; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Anisotropy; bandgaps; black phosphorus; Devices; Electronics; Energy gaps (solid state); Field effect transistors; Nanotechnology; optoelectronics; Phosphorus; Photonic band gaps; Physical properties; Synthesis; electronics; black phosphorus; bandgaps; optoelectronics; anisotropy
• ISSN: 1613-6810; 1613-6829
• DOI: 10.1002/smll.201600032

Black phosphorus (BP) is an emerging two‐dimensional (2D) material with a natural bandgap, which has unique anisotropy and extraordinary physical properties. Due to its puckered structure, BP exhibits strong in‐plane anisotropy unlike other layered materials. The bandgap tunability of BP enables a wide range of ultrafast electronics and high frequency optoelectronic applications ranging from telecommunications to thermal imaging covering the nearly entire electromagnetic spectrum, whereas no other 2D material has this functionality. Here, recent advances in the synthesis, fabrication, anisotropic physical properties, and BP‐based devices including field effect transistors (FETs) and photodetectors, are discussed. Recent passivation approaches to address the degradation of BP, which is one of the main challenges to bring this material into real world applications, are also introduced. Finally, a comment is made on the recent developments in other emerging applications, future outlook and challenges ahead in BP research. Black phosphorus (BP) exhibits extraordinary performance, both in electronics and wide range optoelectronic devices due to its suitable bandgap. The unconventional anisotropy in BP arises from its puckered structure, which makes it an anisotropic material at large magnitude. It also has potential applications in gas sensing at ultralow level detection towards various gases, energy storage devices and thermoelectric applications.