A study of two-dimensional materials

Abstract

Two-dimensional materials have gained great importance ever since the discovery of graphene.[1–5] A variety of 2D materials with interesting properties have been discovered, MoS2 being important one.[6–8] A recent survey[9] has shown there are several hundred inorganic 2D materials, most of them yet to be fully investigated. A simple inorganic 2D material is PbFCl. It occurs naturally as Matlockite, named after a town in Derbyshire, England. It crystallizes in PbFCl-type tetragonal structure having space group P4/nmm. There are large number of compounds which has PbFCl-type structure like PbFBr, PbFI, BaFCl, BaFBr, SrFCl, SrFBr, CaFCl, CaFBr etc.[10] The structure of PbFCl formed by layers parallel to (001) each occupied by a single kind of ion. There are reports on its structure[10–12] but its properties have not been explored. We have been able to prepare single to few layered sheets of PbFCl by exfoliation through ultrasonication. We have studied the properties of the layered sheets of PbFCl and also the intercalation of molecules in the bulk solid.