One-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 367; no. 6477; pp. 537 - 542
• Main Authors: Xiang, Rong, Inoue, Taiki, Zheng, Yongjia, Kumamoto, Akihito, Qian, Yang, Sato, Yuta, Liu, Ming, Tang, Daiming, Gokhale, Devashish, Guo, Jia, Hisama, Kaoru, Yotsumoto, Satoshi, Ogamoto, Tatsuro, Arai, Hayato, Kobayashi, Yu, Zhang, Hao, Hou, Bo, Anisimov, Anton, Maruyama, Mina, Miyata, Yasumitsu, Okada, Susumu, Chiashi, Shohei, Li, Yan, Kong, Jing, Kauppinen, Esko I, Ikuhara, Yuichi, Suenaga, Kazu, Maruyama, Shigeo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States The American Association for the Advancement of Science 31-01-2020
• Subjects: Boron; Boron nitride; Chemical vapor deposition; Crystal growth; Crystal structure; Crystallinity; Crystals; Diameters; Electrical conductivity; Electrical resistivity; Electron diffraction; Electrons; Graphene; Heterostructures; Molybdenum; Molybdenum disulfide; Monolayers; Multilayers; Nanotechnology; Nanotubes; Organic chemistry; Single crystals; Single wall carbon nanotubes; Two dimensional materials
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz2570

We present the experimental synthesis of one-dimensional (1D) van der Waals heterostructures, a class of materials where different atomic layers are coaxially stacked. We demonstrate the growth of single-crystal layers of hexagonal boron nitride (BN) and molybdenum disulfide (MoS
) crystals on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). For the latter, larger-diameter nanotubes that overcome strain effect were more readily synthesized. We also report a 5-nanometer-diameter heterostructure consisting of an inner SWCNT, a middle three-layer BN nanotube, and an outer MoS
nanotube. Electron diffraction verifies that all shells in the heterostructures are single crystals. This work suggests that all of the materials in the current 2D library could be rolled into their 1D counterparts and a plethora of function-designable 1D heterostructures could be realized.