Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Elecroactive two-dimensional (2D) materials including transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have attracted extensive and growing research interest owing to their exotic physical and electrochemical properties, which have enabled their applications in electronics, optoelectronics, electrochemical and sensing devices. Current synthesis strategies for TMDCs rely largely on top-down approaches such as etching and exfoliation. However, the bottom-up approach based chemical vapour deposition (CVD) growth processes has a better chance of producing TMDCs nanostructures with less defects, more homogenous chemical composition, and better short- and long-range ordering. A bottom-up synthesis method implies that the nanostructures are synthesized directly onto a desired substrate by stacking atoms onto each other, which gives rise to crystal planes and resulting in the synthesis of the nanostructures. Among bottom-up approaches in literature, there lacks a systematic understanding of the mechanisms of 2D materials growth, unlike one-dimensional materials whose growth mechanisms have been well understood. To date, the growth design of freestanding 2D materials remain a case-by-case practice. Therefore, in the proposed program the following key challenges will be addressed: (i) Controllable synthesis of TMDCs 2D materials with high quality and high efficiency for large-scale applications by using CVD processes. (ii) Understanding the growth dynamics of TMDCs 2D materials. These studies will provide mechanisms and explanations for experimental observations and useful suggestions for material quality improvement. (iii) Finding the optimal conditions for nucleation and edge reconstruction during growth, as well as predict the structure and stability of TMDCs 2D materials grown on different substrates. Such guidance is valuable for experimentalists to improve their growth processes or to explore innovative techniques. (iv) TMDCs 2D materials functionalization and electrodes fabrication to design high performance sensors based TMDCs for environmental monitoring. This ambitious goal defines a special opportunity to join the international effort to map out the TMDCs 2D materials family and to chart their properties that is only now underway. The proposed research program will provide a systematic and comprehensive introduction of scalable synthesis of this new geration of 2D materials by using CVD methods. Such project will result in groundbreaking advancements in TMDCs 2D materials engineering with the aim of training highly qualified personnel to respond to the scientific and technological demands in academia and industry; developing concrete applications to address the needs of Canadian society and contributing towards the realization of the technology platform of the future and affirming Canada's role as a leader in nanotechnology research and development.