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Updated: Mar 2, 2026

Reverse Microemulsion-mediated Synthesis of Monometallic and Bimetallic Early Transition Metal Carbide and Nitride Nanoparticles
Published on: November 27, 2015
Molybdenum Carbamate Nanosheets as a New Class of Potential Phase Change Materials
Maksym Zhukovskyi1, Vladimir Plashnitsa1, Nattasamon Petchsang2
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame , 251 Nieuwland Science Hall, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, United States.
Abstract:
We report for the first time the synthesis of large, free-standing, Mo2O2(μ-S)2(Et2dtc)2 (MoDTC) nanosheets (NSs), which exhibit an electron-beam induced crystalline-to-amorphous phase transition. Both electron beam ionization and femtosecond (fs) optical excitation induce the phase transition, which is size-, morphology-, and composition-preserving. Resulting NSs are the largest, free-standing regularly shaped two-dimensional amorphous nanostructures made to date. More importantly, amorphization is accompanied by dramatic changes to the NS electrical and optical response wherein resulting amorphous species exhibit room-temperature conductivities 5 orders of magnitude larger than those of their crystalline counterparts. This enhancement likely stems from the amorphization-induced formation of sulfur vacancy-related defects and is supported by temperature-dependent transport measurements, which reveal efficient variable range hopping. MoDTC NSs represent one instance of a broader class of transition metal carbamates likely having applications because of their intriguing electrical properties as well as demonstrated ability to toggle metal oxidation states.
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