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Carbide-free one-zone sulfurization method grows thin MoS2 layers on polycrystalline CVD diamond

MetadataDetails
Publication Date2019-02-14
JournalScientific Reports
AuthorsMichaela SojkovĆ”, Peter Å iffalovič, Oleg Babchenko, G. Vanko, Edmund Dobročka
InstitutionsInstitute of Physics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
Citations24

Abstract The last few decades faced on the fabrication of advanced engineering materials involving also different composites. Here, we report on the fabrication of few-layer molybdenum disulfide on top of thin polycrystalline diamond substrates with a high specific surface area. In the method, pre-deposited molybdenum coatings were sulfurized in a one-zone furnace at ambient pressure. As-prepared MoS 2 layers were characterized by several techniques including grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We found out that the initial thickness of Mo films determined the final c-axis crystallographic orientation of MoS 2 layer as previously observed on other substrates. Even though it is well-known that Mo diffuses into diamond at elevated temperatures, the competing sulfurization applied effectively suppressed the diffusion and a chemical reaction between molybdenum and diamond. In particular, a Mo 2 C layer does not form at the interface between the Mo film and diamond substrate. The combination of diamond high specific surface area along with a controllable layer orientation might be attractive for applications, such as water splitting or water disinfection.