Heterogeneity and aperiodicity in materials is typically viewed as undesirable but recent developments have shown that disorder in materials can lead to interesting and unexpected effects and that disorder and defect engineering are fundamental pathways for tailoring material properties. Towards this end, we utilize chemically exfoliated two-dimensional materials as model systems to study disorder. Chemical exfoliation leads to highly modified materials that are structurally and chemically heterogeneous in graphene oxide and single layered transition metal dichalcogenides, unlike the structurally pristine material formed by mechanical exfoliation or chemical vapor deposition. Thus the focus of our research is to understand and control the complex interplay between the atomic, chemical and electronic structures of the heterogeneous chemically exfoliated materials. In turn, our overall objective is to exploit the chemical heterogeneity to enhance catalytic behavior with nanosheet materials.

Chemically exfoliated 2D materials: Disorder engineering as route for enhancing functionality

247th National Meeting (2014)

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