SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPY OF SINGLE-LAYER MOS2 IN WATER AND BUTANOL

Single layers of MoS2 have been studied with a scanning tunneling microscope operating in air. Films were prepared by depositing either an aqueous or butanol [CH3(CH2)3OH] suspension of single-layer MoS, on graphite substrates. The images obtained from both types of films showed that the unit cell of the single layers corresponds to an approximate 2 X 1 superlattice of the hexagonal 2H-MoS2 structure. The image of dry restacked MoS2 from an aqueous suspension transforms back to the hexagonal MoS2 pattern.