Wet Chemical Method for Black Phosphorus Thinning and Passivation

Layered black phosphorus (BP) has been expected to be a promising material for future electronic and optoelectronic applications since its discovery. However, the difficulty in mass fabricating layered air-stable BP severely obstructs its potential industry applications. Here, we report a new BP chemical modification method to implement all-solution-based mass production of layered air-stable BP. This method uses the combination of two electron-deficient reagents 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyl- N-oxyl (TEMPO) and triphenylcarbenium tetrafluorobor ([Ph₃C]BF₄) to accomplish thinning and/or passivation of BP in organic solvent. The field-effect transistor and photodetection devices constructed from the chemically modified BP flakes exhibit enhanced performances with environmental stability up to 4 months. A proof-of-concept BP thin-film transistor fabricated through the all-solution-based exfoliation and modification displays an air-stable and a typical p-type transistor behavior. This all-solution-based method improves the prospects of BP for industry applications.