Controllable phase engineering is vital for precisely tailoring material properties since different phase structures have various electronic states and atomic arrangements. Rapid synthesis of thermodynamically metastable nanomaterials with high efficiency and low cost remains a large challenge. Here, we approach this issue by an ultrafast electrothermal method, named flash Joule heating (FJH), to achieve the bulk conversion of transition metal dichalcogenides, MoS<sub>2</sub> and WS<sub>2</sub>, from 2H phases to 1T phases in milliseconds. Different degrees of phase conversion can be realized by controlling the FJH conditions, such as reaction duration and additives, which allows the study of ratio-dependent properties. First-principles calculations confirm that structural processes associated with the FJH, such as vacancy formation and charge accumulation, result in stabilization of the 1T phases. FJH offers rapid access to bulk quantities of the hitherto hard-to-access 1T phases, a promising method for further fundamental research and diverse applications of metastable phases.

Ultrafast and controllable synthesis of metastable nanomaterials by flash Joule heating

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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