Isolation of inorganic molecular chains from rod-like bulk V₂Se₉ crystal by liquid exfoliation

We studied the optimum dispersion solvent for bulk V₂Se₉ material, which can be used as a new one-dimensional (1D) material, to separate into 1D chain units. Selected twelve solvents, which have different dielectric constants and surface tensions, were tested to exfoliate bulk V₂Se₉ into nano-scale chains. The atomic level (∼1 nm, mono-chain) exfoliation of V₂Se₉ was performed using acetone as the solvent. The dispersion concentration was high in solvents having medium dielectric constants ranging from 20 to 40 with surface tensions ranging from 25 to 35 mJ m^-2. This result is similar to the dispersion results of previous transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) such as MoS₂, WS₂, MoSe₂, MoTe₂, TaSe₂, NbSe₂, and NiTe₂, indicating that the V₂Se₉ material and its dispersion to 1D units can be expected to play an important role in opening opportunities for new low-dimensional material studies.