Transition metal oxides (TMOs) are important materials for their use in electronic and optoelectronic devices. It is necessary to study and develop nanomaterials that exhibit ambipolar behavior, in order to utilize these materials in devices such as light-emitting transistors (LETs), solar cells, gas sensors, etc. Most TMOs have a strong preference towards being unipolar doped, which is due to whether the host material can stabilize the defect formation that provides the p- vs. n-type behavior. In this work, we investigate nickel and cobalt layered metal hydroxides which exhibit n-type behavior upon treatment with n-butyllithium, whereas their dehydrated rock-salt form exhibits p-type behavior. By varying the dopant concentration, the conductivity of the nanoplatelets increases by 4 to 6 orders of magnitude. Our studies provide insight into how these layered structures are capable of stabilizing defect formation by metal-centered reduction, Li<sup>+</sup> adsorption and oxygen vacancy formation. Furthermore, our work demonstrates the ability to obtain an ambipolar doped material in which we understand how the defect formation impacts the crystal structure stability.

Reversible electron doping of layered metal hydroxide nanoplates (M = Co, Ni) using n–butyllithium

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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