Subnanometer Thin β-Indium Sulfide Nanosheets

Nanosheets are a peculiar kind of nanomaterials that are grown two-dimensionally over a micrometer in length and a few nanometers in thickness. Wide varieties of inorganic semiconductor nanosheets are already reported, but controlling the crystal growth and tuning their thickness within few atomic layers have not been yet explored. We investigate here the parameters that determine the thickness and the formation mechanism of subnanometer thin (two atomic layers) cubic indium sulfide (In2S3) nanosheets. Using appropriate reaction condition, the growth kinetics is monitored by controlling the decomposition rate of the single source precursor of In2S3 as a function of nucleation temperature. The variation in the thickness of the nanosheets along the polar [111] direction has been correlated with the rate of evolved H2S gas, which in turn depends on the rate of the precursor decomposition. In addition, it has been observed that the thickness of the In2S3 nanosheets is related to the nucleation temperature.