Reversible Oxidation of Blue Phosphorus Monolayer on Au(111)

Authors

Jia Zhang, National University of Singapore
Songtao Zhao, University of Science and Technology of China
Mykola Telychko, National University of Singapore
Shuo Sun, National University of Singapore
Xu Lian, National University of Singapore
Jie Su, National University of Singapore
Anton Tadich, Australian Synchrotron
Dongchen Qi, Queensland University of Technology
Jincheng Zhuang, University of WollongongFollow
Yue Zheng, National University of Singapore
Zhirui Ma, National University of Singapore
Chengding Gu, National University of Singapore
Zehua Hu, National University of Singapore
Yi Du, University of WollongongFollow
Jiong Lu, National University of Singapore
Zhenyu Li, University of Science and Technology of China
Wei Chen, Tianjin University, National University of Singapore

RIS ID

138423

Publication Details

Zhang, J. Lin., Zhao, S., Telychko, M., Sun, S., Lian, X., Su, J., Tadich, A., Qi, D., Zhuang, J., Zheng, Y., Ma, Z., Gu, C., Hu, Z., Du, Y., Lu, J., Li, Z. & Chen, W. (2019). Reversible Oxidation of Blue Phosphorus Monolayer on Au(111). Nano Letters, 19 (8), 5340-5346.

Abstract

Practical applications of two-dimensional (2D)black phosphorus (BP) are limited by its fast degradationunder ambient conditions, for which many differentmechanisms have been proposed; however, an atomic levelunderstanding of the degradation process is still hindered bythe absence of bottom-up methods for the growth of large-scale few-layer black phosphorus. Recent experimental successin the fabrication of single-layer blue phosphorus provides amodel system to probe the oxidation mechanism of two-dimensional (2D) phosphorene down to single-layer thick-nesses. Here, we report an atomic-scale investigation of theinteraction between molecular oxygen and blue phosphorus.The atomic structure of blue phosphorus and the localbinding sites of oxygen have been precisely identified using qPlus-based noncontact atomic force microscopy. A combination oflow-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements reveal a thermallyreversible oxidation process of blue phosphorus in a pure oxygen atmosphere. Our study clearly demonstrates the essential roleof oxygen in the initial oxidation process, and it sheds further light on the fundamental pathways of the degradation mechanism.