Mind the band gap! -- researchers create new nanoscale forms of elementary semiconductor with tunable electronic properties

Naturally occurring 2D semiconductor with antiferromagnetic ground state

The natural clay mineral vermiculite has been overlooked as a promising candidate for scalable production of large aspect ratio 2D wide band-gap semiconductors. We combine here efficient methods for vermiculite delamination, which provides single nanosheets of ~1 nm thickness. It is demonstrated by experiments and simulations that delaminated vermiculite nanosheets act as semiconductors with a wide band-gap energy of 3.3–3.9 eV depending on the …

Mind the band gap! -- researchers create new nanoscale forms of elementary semiconductor with tunable electronic properties

Researchers have demonstrated that by using a semiconductor with flexible bonds, the material can be moulded into various structures using nano containers, without altering its composition, the discovery could lead to the design of a variety of customised electronic devices using only a single element.